


Searching For Salvation (In A Secular Age)

by PAPERSK1N



Category: Rooster Teeth/Achievement Hunter RPF
Genre: Angel!Gavin, Angel!Geoff, Angel!Jack, Angel/Demon AU, Angels, Angst, Demon!Ray, Demon!Ryan, Demons, Geovin brOTP, God - Freeform, M/M, Mavin, Misunderstandings, Raychael brOTP, Raywood, Religion, Slow Burn, but also cute stuff, but don't worry it all works out fine, demonic rituals, human!Lindsay, human!michael, socially awkward Angels, some raywood angst that will make u want to smush them together and shout "COMMUNICATION IS HEALTHY", they learn eventually
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-07-27
Updated: 2016-03-05
Packaged: 2018-04-11 13:24:19
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 18
Words: 49,787
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4437062
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/PAPERSK1N/pseuds/PAPERSK1N
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Michael is a normal guy with a normal job. He's from a (somewhat) normal family in normal New Jersey, and then he moves to (very) normal Austin, Texas. </p><p>And then, he hears a noise at the door.</p><p>Curiosity killed the cat, but fuck it, the cat had nine lives anyway. Michael opens the door, because what's the worst that can happen?</p><p>Gavin Free changes his life forever.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. A Chance Encounter

Chapter One // A Chance Encounter

Friday nights are Michael’s favourite nights. Weekends are his days off, so he doesn’t have to worry about dragging himself out of bed in the mornings, eyes heavy but a bright, fake smile on his face as he asks Mrs Murphy from two doors down if she’s tried flicking her fuse on and off again for maybe the thousandth time since moving here.

He spends most Friday nights sitting alone on his couch, drinking a beer or two and watching cable until his eyes grow dry and itchy. He eats chips instead of dinner, only occasionally spicing it up with salsa or a Hershey’s bar.; or two, or five... lactose intolerance isn’t even that much of a big deal anyway, right?

Being careless and alone on Friday nights is one of Michael’s favourite things about living alone, thousands of miles away from home. He doesn’t have his mother nagging him about getting to bed or eating right. He doesn’t have any of his brothers sitting on the couch, mocking his choice in TV shows or his hair or his stupid freckles. He doesn’t have his friends, texting him and asking him if he’s coming out to whatever bar or whatever club, because Franco’s dad owns the place, and he can get them in without ID and Jake’s cousin can maybe get them some weed if they pay him double.

He can do what-the-fuck-ever he wants to do. He can watch what he wants to watch without having to hear an opinion. He can eat all the unhealthy shit he can stomach, without a single motherfucking interruption.

And then he hears it.

It sounds like a person. A quiet _oof_ out in the hall; followed by a faint bump against his door, almost like a person has fallen against it. Frowning, Michael stands up.

If this was New Jersey, things would be different. He'd stay, sitting on his couch and eating his chips. He’d ignore the sound, because there’s always some crackhead or drunk causing a ruckus. It wouldn’t be his fucking problem.

But he isn’t living in New Jersey. This is Austin, he has to remind himself. People in Austin are _nice_ , and _hospitable_ and they _help each other out_.

For Michael, it’s a completely alien concept that he goes along with, just so he can fit in.

Michael walks over to his front door, looking cautiously through the peephole. There’s still always that little bit of New Jersey in him, to never trust anything at face value. Question _everything_ , his mother had taught him. You’re only as good as your weakest defence.

Michael can't see anything through the peephole but his empty corridor, which only makes him frown more, fingers closing around the door handle.

 _Just kids_ , He thinks to himself _just a couple of stupid kids, dicking around and knocking on doors._

Still, there’s something in him telling him to double check, just in case. In case of _what_ , exactly, he isn’t sure, but he has to check. He doesn’t know why, but he knows that he does. And that makes him curious to no end.

Michael opens the door, and a weight hits his legs. There is a man, who had been slumped against the door, now laying at Michael’s feet. Instantly, Michael groans. Because he had to be curious, didn't he? He had to open the fucking door, and now he’s got his DNA all over some kind of unconscious victim, as he hoists the man up by his armpits, holding him and closing the door frantically.

He’s in way over his head, he knows that. He can see the floppy brown hair sticking to the shallow cut on the man’s forehead. He can feel the blood trickling out from under the man’s sleeve onto his hands, dripping bright and scarlet onto Michael’s dreary looking beige carpet.

Great, now the DNA’s in Michael’s apartment too? He really is screwed, because he's holding the guy around the waist and leaning him against his chest, and he can't really feel the guy breathing...

Suddenly, the stranger lurches forwards, out of Michael’s grip, throwing himself against the wall. He leans against it, doubled over and coughing up blood, all over Michael’s awful, shitty carpet.

“Holy shit!” Michael exclaims, jumping backwards in shock. The man turns, holding a hand out to stop Michael, as he tries to approach the stranger again.

“No!” The stranger groans,, barely able to speak as blood dribbles from his lips. “Do not be afra-”

And then, the stranger falls unconscious again, collapsing against the wall. Michael catches him before he falls, and throws his arm around Michael’s shoulders, dragging the stranger over to his couch.

The man falls down onto the couch like a dead weight as Michael releases him, and for the first time, Michael really _thinks_ , because is this _really_ what his fucking life has come to now? He had to move across the fucking country, all the way to Austin Texas, just to become an accessory to a possible murder? If only his brothers could fucking see him now.

The stranger is laid back against the couch, a bead of blood trickling down his face and settling at his jaw. Michael isn’t stupid, he knows the rational course of action is to call the police, or an ambulance and have the man taken away and taken care of. Michael will never have to ever see the guy again. He can go back to just having a normal, boring, lonely Friday night.

But for some reason, Michael just cannot bring himself to do that, and his eyes fall once again upon the stranger, fixated.

There is something in the impossibly innocent expression on the man’s face, telling Michael to wait. There is more to this stranger. He has a story to tell, and Michael will be dammed if he isn’t going to hear it.

* * *

 

 

After twenty minutes or so of awkwardly staring at the sleeping man, Michael decides that he had to at least do something. He doesn't know if the man will sleep for an hour or an eternity. He doesn’t even know if the guy will pull through the night, and he really doesn’t know what he’s going to do if he wakes up in the morning to find a dead body marinating on his couch.

Can you be arrested for accidentally allowing a man to die?

With little difficulty, he slips the man’s blazer off. He fingers the soft material, instantly recognising that the suit is an expensive one. He feels around inside the man’s pockets for any ID, but finds nothing, before sighing, and laying the jacket on his coffee table.

Only dangerous people wear suits at night. Only dangerous people show up at other people’s doorsteps covered in blood at night.

Only dangerous people can ever hold Michael’s attention for long.

He looks down at the stranger’s slim, long body. There is blood, pooling on his left arm, so Michael takes out his weighted metal cufflink, and rolls the man’s sleeves up to his elbow.

Michael studies the deep gash on the man’s forearm, and he frowns. The wound seems to no longer be bleeding, and the cut looks to be at least a day old. Raw, but beginning to heal. This confuses Michael, because the blood on the man’s shirt is still wet and warm and _fresh_. The wound on at his temple was leaking out blood barely a few minutes ago.

Confused, Michael rolls the man’s shirtsleeve back down, and releases his arm. There is something about the stranger’s skin that feels odd under Michael’s fingers. His body isn’t warm, but it isn’t exactly _cool_ either. An unreadable temperature sits on his skin, and it makes Michael squirm a little, as he rests the back of his hand against the man’s forehead, feeling an overwhelming sense of _nothing_.

His hand recoils, and he lays it back by his side. It unnerves him, the way that he can’t quite figure out this stranger. He doesn’t know anything about him. He doesn’t even know his name, yet somehow, he felt compelled to drag the wounded man into his home and lay him on his couch.

“What the fuck are you, dude?” Michael whispers, more to himself than the sleeping stranger.

 Then, he sits back against the couch as the man continues to sleep beside him. Michael can’t tear his eyes away.

He looks like a normal guy, maybe a little lanky, with a nose definitely on the side of large, rather than small. When he had been conscious for a few moments previously, his eyes had been a muted green colour, with a few flecks of gold and brown around the pupil.

He is _handsome_ , Michael can admit that. But what is really drawing him to the stranger, is the intrigue that Michael holds for him. That itch in the back of his throat and against his fingertips, that tells him that somehow, someway, this man does not fit in to the natural order of the world.

Because what kind of asshole would get blood all over a pretty nice suit, without a good reason, before staggering into Michael’s apartment building and collapsing against his door?

Michael thinks of this as he lies his head against the couch, feeling his eyes begin to droop. _I'll just shut my eyes for a minute_ , he thinks. _Just for a couple of minutes, then I'll wake the fucker up and get some answers._

* * *

 

Michael is awoken by a panicked gasp, making him flinch and spring awake. His eyes fly open, and for a moment, his body become encompassed in a state of panic and uncertainty. Like when you wake up from a nap, and suddenly can’t remember what day it is.

Michael calms, realising that he’s sitting on his couch in his apartment, safe; he looks over to the stranger, who is sitting bolt upright, eyes wide and breathing heavy.

“Dude, what the _fuck_!” Michael exclaims, resting his hand over his chest, as if to control his erratic heartbeat. The man says nothing, eyes blinking twice as his breathing begins to regulate to its previous, almost non-existent state. “Are you okay?” Michael asks.

The stranger’s eyes briefly flit around the room, as the man takes in his surroundings, before finally- they settle onto Michael. Michael feels himself shiver under the stranger’s gaze. He isn’t sure why.

The man’s facial expression barely changes from _empty_ , and he stands.

“I'll be leaving.” He says, picking up his blazer from the coffee table and slipping it on over his shirt.

“Wait, _what_ ,” Michael asks incredulously, standing up himself as the man adjusts his jacket. “Dude, what the fuck? You can’t just leave, are you okay?”

“I’m fine.” The stranger says with a nod. “You have nothing to worry about. Forget about me.”

Michael silently watches at the stranger stands, stretching once before walking over in the direction of the door. Gone is the limp he held previously, the labouring breaths and the inability to even stand. He walks with a sense of purpose, taking confident strides through Michael’s apartment.

“Dude, but- but your arm, and your head!” Michael points out. The stranger stops in front of Michael’s front door, and turns, to look at him. The blood from before that had lingered around his lips and trickled down from his forehead was gone, as if it had never been there in the first place.

“I’m fine.” He repeats. “You have _nothing_ to worry about.”

“Wait…” Michael shakes his head. For a second, he forgets about the stranger’s lack of injuries. Something else diverts his attention. “You’re fucking _British_ too? What the _fuck_!”

“It isn’t important.” The man puts his hand up, and Michael is surprised at how quickly he falls silent. “I'll be on my way.” The man says, tucking his hand into his pocket, almost casually.

“ _Dude_ … are you like, a _spy_?” Michael asks. All the anticipation he held as the stranger had laid unconscious on his couch is still there, and his mind is still racing as it searches for at least one plausible explanation. Nothing makes sense, and Michael hates it when things don’t make sense.

“Am I a _what_?”

“A _spy_ , dude- like James Bond and shit? Shaken not stirred? You know, all that?” Michael tries. The man’s expression remains blank. “Come on, dude- it’s the only fucking explanation? Is that why you haven’t like, told me your name or anything? Are you a spy?”

“I-I don’t know what that is. My name is Gavin.” The man, _Gavin_ , says.

“Gavin… okay,” Michael says, feeling the name swirl around his mouth and sit on the tip of his tongue. Somehow it matches the man _perfectly_ , from his accent to the vacant expression on his face.

“So, _Gavin_ , if you aren’t a spy…” Michael asks, “What are you? Do you work for like… the government, or something? Like a top secret… organisation or whatever?”

Gavin frowns, looking at Michael. He looks at Michael the same way Michael had looked at him as he slept, eyes narrowed and brow furrowed as he studied him, searching for answers.

The difference between Michael and this _Gavin_ , is that as Gavin’s face twists into a smirk, Michael feels like he’s already found everything he’d been searching for. Michael nervously swallows around his throat, and struggles to hold eye contact with Gavin, who takes a step towards him, small smirk lingering on his face.

“You humans.” Gavin says, sounding almost _wistful_ as he speaks. “I will always wonder what it’s like to live in such a primitive mind, with such a _vast_ imagination.”

“W-What?”

“I’m an Angel.” He says, offhandedly, clasping his hands together.

Michael laughs aloud. “Yeah, okay dude- what are you, fucking drunk? What kind of angel is called _Gavin_ anyway?”

“You wouldn’t be able to pronounce my real name, Gavin is just the name of my vessel.” Gavin remains nonchalant as ever, not quite registering nor understanding Michael’s amusement.

“Yeah, okay.” Michael scoffs. “The fucking angel _Gavin…_ and _what_? You just… dropped in front of my doorstep because _God_ sent you?” he laughs. “Give me a break.”

Gavin frowns, and it’s the most emotion Michael has seen from him all night. “I'll prove it.” He says indignantly as he postures for a moment, chest expanding.

“What, are you going to perform a fucking miracle?” Michael mocks. Gavin only smirks.

“Something like that.” He says, rubbing his hands together gently. “Give me your arm.”

“ _What_?”

“Give me your arm.” Gavin repeats. Michael isn’t sure if it is the curiosity he can feel bubbling away in his stomach or if it’s the authoritative tone that Gavin holds in his own voice, but he shrugs, awkwardly extending his arm out to Gavin.

Gavin runs his finger over the long scar on Michael’s forearm, staring at it intently. Michael shivers under his heatless touch.

“I, uh-”

“-Fell trying to climb through a broken window when you were twelve, I got that.” Gavin nods.

“How the fuck did you- _oh_ ”Michael stops talking as faint tingling begins in his arm. It feels like pins and needles, but oddly _pleasant_ , and Michael can’t help but look down, to watch Gavin's movements. There’s something in him that trusts Gavin, completely, and he isn’t sure why. This intrigues him.

Gavin’s hand caresses his arm so gently, and he rubs the pad of his thumb over the scar. Michael looks up to Gavin’s face, and lets out a short gasp, as he notices Gavin's eyes, light up blue.

“You… You’re…” Michael can barely speak and his body feels like jell-o, as Gavin releases him arm, and tucks his hands back in his pockets. The light in his eyes fade, and there is a crack of lighting outside, casting a bright light into the apartment. Michael frowns, because _when did it start raining anyway?_ ;but is soon distracted as the wall behind Gavin is lit up white, with the shadow of Gavin casted on it. He can see Gavin’s body in the shadow, tall and lanky. His hair isn’t floppy anymore, it stands up on end in almost a gravity-defying way, and Michael gasps again as the lighting cracks, and two giant wings are casted.

He looks back to Gavin, who smiles. The brit doesn’t actually have wings in the room, only in the shadows, but as the light fades, Michael can’t help but imagine what they’d look like if he could see them. Michael imagines that Gavin’s wings would be white, like a cartoon, but maybe, they’d have little flecks of brown in them, the same colour as his hair.

“You’re a fucking _angel_.” Michael says.

“I am.” Gavin nods, as the thunder stops, and the light inside the apartment returns to normal. Michael can’t help but run his fingers up and down the spot where his scar used to be, staring at Gavin, who suddenly seems so much _bigger_ than him. In reality, there’s barely an inch between the two of them in height, but there’s a power there in the way that Gavin holds himself, upright and proud like a soldier.

“Sorry for… dropping in, I was taking care of some… business across town. I got injured, but I’m alright now.” Gavin explains, tapping his fingers against his temple twice, right in the spot that had once been bleeding. Michael can't do much else but nod, mouth still hanging open slightly in shock.

“Thank you for not leaving me in the hallway.” Gavin says.

“I… you’re welcome, dude- no problem.” Michael replies, more than a little dazed. “But, uh… why-why are you telling me all this?” he asks

Gavin smirks at this. “Don’t worry, Michael Jones.” He says. “Come morning, you won't remember a thing.”

Before Michael can ask Gavin what he means, two fingers are pressed against his forehead, and his eyes are closing, the last image of Gavin, with his eyes glowing blue slowly blurring until it is gone completely.

* * *

 

Michael awakens, and it’s morning. He’s laying down on the couch, and slowly, he sits up, wrinkling his nose because _damn_ does he feel groggy.

_How many fucking beers did I drink last night?_

All he can think about it the night before. Something about angels? Fuck, maybe he was drunk, because he rarely has dreams so vivid before. Michael stands, stretching and clicking his neck. He has a bad habit of falling asleep on the couch in front of the TV, and he always has to pay for it.

He laughs to himself, thinking of his dream, as he sits back down on the couch, arms resting on his knees.

 _A fucking angel_. He thinks, shaking his head and smiling. _I really need to stop drinking before bed._

Then, something catches the light from the open window, reflecting into Michael’s eyes.

“W-what the fuck…” Michael shields his eyes as bright light shines towards him, and squints, looking to the coffee table. Something sits there, small and metal, reflecting the light from the window. Michael reaches out and holds it in his hand.

It’s warm, and heavier than he expected. Michael turns his back so he isn’t facing the window, and finally, opens his eyes fully again.

And then the cufflink falls from his hands, hitting the couch cushion and rolling off onto the floor. Michael’s hands tingle, and he jerks his arm up, pulling up his sleeve and staring at the space where a scar belongs. A scar he’s had since he was twelve years old.

It’s gone, he quickly realises. Michael knows that he isn’t supposed to, but for some reason, he remembers.

He remembers _everything_.


	2. Searching For A Lost Cause

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> For days, Michael thinks about Gavin.
> 
> Work passes in a blur, and every moment he inspects a circuit or fits a light bulb, he thinks about the way Gavin’s eyes lit up when he touched Michael’s arm, and the way Gavin’s touch made his body tingle and the way that Gavin’s skin felt like nothing and everything at the same time.
> 
> Every conversation he has, whether it be over Xbox Live or simply to a barista in Starbucks, is muted. It’s like, since Gavin left, everything in his life has had the volume turned down.

Chapter Two// Searching for a Lost Cause

For days, Michael thinks about Gavin.

Work passes in a blur, and every moment he inspects a circuit or fits a light bulb, he thinks about the way Gavin’s eyes lit up when he touched Michael’s arm, and the way Gavin’s touch made his body tingle and the way that Gavin’s skin felt like _nothing_ and _everything_ at the same time.

Every conversation he has, whether it be over Xbox Live or simply to a barista in Starbucks, is muted. It’s like, since Gavin left, everything in his life has had the volume turned down.

No feeling compares to the one of Gavin’s touch. He beats the game he’s been grinding for months, but barely feels more than a flicker-beat of pride. He goes to his favourite pizza place, but the flavour is suddenly bland.

He can’t even jerk off anymore without thinking about Gavin, and he’s usually left questioning and unsatisfied afterwards.

After a few days of his new, toned down lifestyle, Michael realises that enough is fucking enough. He’s got to find Gavin again, somehow, somewhere, and start feeling things again. He can’t fucking live like this much longer, and if Gavin really is an _Angel_ , there’s got to be a way of finding him.

He _Googles_ and _Bings_ and _Yahoo Searches_ until his eyes are red and bloodshot. Eventually, he comes to a website on mythological laws that has a whole subsection dedicated to bible mythology.

He reads, page after page, and unfortunately, there isn’t a whole lot about angels. Nothing more than a few fancy paintings of naked men with wings, winged babies covered in cloth, the usual shit you’d see in any museum or eighth grade Religious Studies presentation.

However, the page isn’t completely futile. He doesn’t learn much about angels exactly, but- he does find something else.

_Demons: History, Recorded Contact, Rituals, Summoning._

At first, he’s doubtful. There’s always been the stories of people summoning demons and spirits, covering themselves in goats blood and drawing pentagrams. Girls deciding to become ‘Wiccan’ in tenth grade, wearing black and reading books about _healing crystals_ and herbs. All of that _Blair Witch Project_ type shit. Michael’s sceptical, because in his mind, those people have always been fucking crazy.

But then, there he was, searching online for an angel named fucking _Gavin._

According to the website, angels and demons have history. Fights and wars, but also there are stories and accounts of alliances and truces. Michael isn’t sure what to believe, but he does know that summoning a demon is probably his best shot at even learning more about the angels.

He feels fucking insane for suddenly believing in all this shit, but he’s already bought a bible and some lambs blood from a shady butchers way downtown. He’s hanging a fucking rosary from his ceiling fan, and he’s crossing his fingers that his neighbours can’t hear him as he starts reciting the Latin he’s printed off of the website.

He reads the ritual, mixes the blood and stands around a foot away from the devils trap he’s copied off of demonic-wiki.com, and once he’s finished, he screws his eyes shut. He doesn’t want to really admit that he’s scared out of his fucking skin, but it’s the truth, because what if the demon really is as powerful as some people seem to think, and wants to rip his fucking throat out for summoning him in the first place?

“ _Michael?”_

Michael’s eyes bolt open. Because he knows that fucking voice.

“ _Ray?”_

* * *

 

“Fucking Hell…. Michael, what are you doing summoning a fucking _demon_?” Ray asks. Michael’s mouth simply hangs open in shock, and Ray sighs. He blinks once, and his eyes turn from pure black, back to their usual, friendly brown that shines behind his glasses.

“Michael, buddy? You still with me?”

“Y-You-”

“-I’m a demon, yes.” Ray gestures to himself. “Sorry. You weren’t meant to find out. Not like this, anyway.”

“I…Does-does Ryan know?” Michael asks, voice laced with concern. Ryan is the super-friendly computer nerd who Michael had known from his brief stint in college, who’d fallen head over heels for Ray the moment Michael had introduced the two. They’d been together for the best part of two years, and Ryan was probably the nicest guy Michael had ever met.

“He’s… he’s also a demon, Michael.”

“ _What?_ ”

“We’re both demons, Michael. We’ve always been demons.” Ray explains with a nonchalant shrug. He glances awkwardly around the room, unable to meet Michael’s eyes.

“But…but- Ryan went to _college_! And you-we’ve been friends for _years_? Why… why would you be _demons_?”

“What, you think demons don’t have interests too?” Ray asks defensively. “We do more than lurk around hell and fucking… I don’t know, torture babies or whatever you think we do! We have fucking lives. Ryan and I have both been topside for quite a while.”

“And what… that whole- _relationship_ , me setting you guys up? Was that all just an act too? So I wouldn’t get suspicious?”

“No, _no_ ,” Ray shakes his head. “Michael-I… when you introduced me to Ryan, I was shocked to find another demon who had the same… _opinions_ about hell that I do. Our relationship’s _real_ , and I'll always owe you for that, c’mon bro.”

Michael swallows and nods, looking up and back to Ray. “I-It’s okay.” He says, nodding. “I’m just… shocked, obviously.”

“I understand.” Ray says. “It’s a lot to take in. But… I guess it’s not a total shock, considering you did summon me. I’m guessing you know about demons, then?” he asks. Michael shrugs.

“I-Not much, to be honest. I guess I know you guys exist, now, obviously… I just- I was looking for some information.”

Ray raises an eyebrow. “Information?” He asks. “What kind of information?”

“About an Angel.” Michael says, stepping forwards and running the toe of his sneaker through the devils trap on the floor, rubbing the chalk away. Ray steps free, and walks over to Michael’s couch, running his fingers across the edges.

“There was one here, wasn’t there?” he asks.

“How’d you know?”

“I can feel it.” Ray shrugs. “I knew something went on the other day, but us demons usually stay out of angel business. They mostly stay upstairs,” Ray glances at the ceiling. At Michael’s confused glance, he explains himself further. “Heaven.”

“Oh.”

“They only come down when told to. Also, they're a hell of a lot more powerful than us demons are, so we like stay out of their way.”

“So… angels are like, your enemies?” Michael asks. Ray smirks.

“Not really. They used to be, back when Michael and Lucifer were both still kicking.”

“The archangels?”

“You’ve done your homework.” Michael nods. “Yes, the two most powerful angels in existence. One a valiant warrior, one a spoilt brat… guess which one brought me into creation.” Ray’s slight smile faded into a smirk, and he looked down at Michael’s couch. “Lucifer wanted to start the apocalypse, Michael wanted to stop him. There was a brief war, angels versus demons, but it all got cleared up pretty quickly.”

“Who won?” Michael asks, curiosity bubbling.

“Neither.” Ray says, almost a little sadly. “Both Michael and Lucifer died. Officially, there’s peace between angels and demons. We don’t fuck with each other, basically.” He shrugs. “But still… they’re assholes. That’s all you really need to know about them. Assholes with wings who’ve got serious daddy issues.”

“Sounds like half the girls you’d meet in the strip club down the street.” Michael jokes. Ray laughs.

“Pretty much.” He says. “Now, what are you doing looking for this…angel anyway? Considering your eyes haven’t been… burned from your skull- I’d say you got a lucky escape. So why are you snooping around?”

“He- this _angel_ ¸ I don’t know… I felt, like _drawn_ to him. He uh,” Michael shifted, holding his arm out towards Ray. “He healed my scar. And then… he told me he was an angel and shit… and his name was Gavin- or that was his vessels name, or some bullshit like that… whatever that means-”

Ray’s eyebrows raise at the mention of Gavin’s name, but nothing’s changed about Ray except for his species, so he doesn’t give anything away, as usual. “Vessel, it’s a nice way of saying ‘the poor dude who I’m possessing’.” Ray laughs. “Angels can’t walk the earth without a body, demons either. Ray Narvaez Jr was actually a real guy, once upon a time. I’ve had his body for almost a century though.” He shrugs.

“What- you’re _possessing_ someone?” Michael asks. Ray nods.

“Don’t have another choice, man. It’s either this,” he gestures to his, or _Ray’s_ body, “Or fucking lurk around downstairs as a big ball of smoke. And to be honest, things down there haven’t exactly been fun in the past few centuries, so I’m staying topside for as long as I can.”

“But… like- isn’t that wrong?” Michael asks. Ray rolls his eyes.

“Honestly, yes- it is. But we don’t have another choice, and you don’t see anyone talking shit about angels for possessing bodies, do you?”

“Alright, true.” Michael nods. “It’s just… a lot to take in.”

Ray sighs. “So, back to this angel, _Gavin_. I know who he is. I can probably help you find him.”

“Really?” Michael asks. “You’d do that?”

Ray smiles. “Dude, just because I’m a demon, doesn’t mean I’m not your best friend. And to be honest, you could’ve trapped me in here, and googled how to kill me, but you haven’t, and I respect that. So yeah, I'll help.”

Michael grins, and lurches forwards, pulling Ray into a tight hug, which the demon quickly reciprocates. “Thanks.” Michael says.

“Yeah, alright, don’t fucking turn my lack-of-soul soft. Let me call Ryan, tell him the cats out of the bag and that he doesn’t have to- you know, murder you or anything.”

“Great.” Michael swallows nervously. “Thanks.”

Ray laughs. “I’m kidding, he wouldn’t do that.” He says. “Ryan may be a demon, but he’s still a fucking big softie. So chill out, okay? We’ll help you find the angel on your fucking shoulder.”

* * *

 

Michael’s never been a patient person. From being a kid, when he'd have to wait in the doctor's office or in line at an amusement park, to now, sitting on the couch playing video games with Ray, because Ryan’s off hunting for ingredients to summon an angel and he hasn’t been back in two days.

“Chill out.” Ray says, clearly sensing his unease. “Ryan’s on his way back.”

“How’d you know?” Michael asks. Ray sniffs the air.

“I can smell him.” Ray says, offering no more explanation. Michael’s face wrinkles into a mixture between confusion and borderline disgust, and Ray laughs, somehow seeing without taking his eyes off the screen.

“Dude, relax. We’re like… because we’re together, our individual scents are like… linked, I guess? Demons can recognise each other by scent, because there’s no guarantee you’re going to be in the same body forever, you know?” he explains. Michael relaxes and nods.

“That sounds a lot less weird.” Michael says, and Ray smiles, before turning his glance towards the door of Michael’s apartment. He sniffs the air once more, before nodding, and turning back to the game.

“He’ll be here in about an hour.”

* * *

 

Ryan arrives exactly an hour later with a backpack practically _jingling_ with supplies. He greets Ray with an affectionate kiss, the way Michael always sees him do. But still, it’s different, because when Ryan opens his eyes again, they’re completely black. Michael’s stomach bottoms out, and he chews at his lip nervously, glancing to the ground.

Ray notices immediately, and smacks Ryan on the arm. “Dude, you’re freaking him out.”

Ryan’s eyes return to their familiar blue, and he smiles. “Sorry Michael. Couldn’t resist.”

“It’s okay.” Michael shrugs. “It’s just gonna take some getting used to, I guess.”

“Fully understandable.” Ryan says, and it’s a relief to Michael, how familiar his voice sounds. He walks over to Michael’s kitchen counter and opens up his bag, pulling out various jars and bottles and a brass plate. He works silently and seriously, pouring ingredients and stirring things.

Ray is the complete opposite, casually leaning against the kitchen isle next to Ryan, poking and prodding at different artefacts. Silently, Ryan will move them out of Ray’s grasp, and Ray will pout, batting his eyelashes.

Michael doesn’t really know how to feel, because for a demonic couple, Ray and Ryan are still pretty fucking cute.

Ray dips his finger into a red, thick looking liquid and tastes it. His eyebrows furrow and he licks the side of his finger where a few drops had spilt. “Blood of Cupid?” he asks. “Where in the literal _Hell_ did you get this?”

“Friend owed me a favour.” Ryan says, a small grin playing on his face as he pretends not to notice Ray going in for another dunk.

“How long will the ritual take?” Michael asks, feeling confident enough to speak up. Ryan looks up at him, and Michael tries not to shiver under his gaze. Now he understands why Ryan’s eyes always looked so cold.

“Now I’ve mixed everything? I’d say… twenty seconds.”

Before Michael can ask what, Ryan starts chanting, loudly, both his and Ray’s eyes turning completely black. The curtains covering the window billow slightly, and Michael’s hears thunder crash outside.

At once, the windows fly open, thankfully not smashing, but letting in a severe wind. Michael’s hair blows back, making his eyes squint. He puts his arm in front of his face as a bright light suddenly shines, and he can barely hear Ray’s voice shout _close your eyes_ before there is _white_ and then suddenly, _black._

After a few moments of silence, Michael opens his eyes again. He hasn’t gone blind, which is a good sign, and even better, crouched in front of him is the Angel he knows as _Gavin_.

The angel stands to his feet, and the thunder cracks a final time, the familiar shadow of wings projecting onto the wall. Gavin’s expression looks thunderous, as he glares at Ryan and Ray, before it travels, settling onto…

“ _Michael_?”

Michael can hardly form words by this point. Gavin just looks so _powerful_ so _majestic_ and so fucking _angry_ that he thinks if he even speaks a word, he’s likely to be struck down. Gavin’s gaze bares into him for another few moments, before it travels back up to Ryan and Ray.

“And what the _heck_ do you two think you’re doing?” he demands.

“Chill out.” Ray says with a shrug, eyes returning back to normal. “Just helping out a friend.” he nods towards Michael, whose mouth is still hung open like a fish. “Turns out he had a bit of a… close encounter”

“ _Michael_.” Gavin says again, accent dominant and gaze curious. He tilts his head, frowning as he looks Michael up and down. “That’s what I just can't quite add up about this whole flipping situation.”

“You need to give him answers-”

“I don’t _need_ to do anything.” Gavin cuts Ryan off with a wave of his hand, eyes never leaving Michael’s. “But I do have a few questions of my own.”

“G-Gavin…”

“How the _bloody hell_ do you remember me?”


	3. Guardian of The Earth/Descendant of The Divine

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> “How?” Gavin asks. Michael can offer no explanation past a shrug and a few wobbly vowels that sound like words, but aren’t really. Gavin glares back at Ryan and Ray. “Was it you two?” he points at the pair accusingly.
> 
> “What, no!” Ray held his hands up. “He fucking summoned me to help him find you! It’s nothing to do with us.”
> 
> “But you summoned me!”
> 
> “I summoned you.” Ryan says, stepping forwards slightly in front of Ray, almost in a protective way. “If you’re picking a fight, pick it with me.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So i queued this to upload on Monday (as I have been out of the county until today) and for some reason it didn't post? Oh well, here it is now, sorry for the late upload!

Chapter Three // Guardian of the Earth/Descendant of the Divine

“How?” Gavin asks. Michael can offer no explanation past a shrug and a few wobbly vowels that _sound_ like words, but aren’t really. Gavin glares back at Ryan and Ray. “Was it you two?” he points at the pair accusingly.

“What, no!” Ray held his hands up. “He fucking summoned _me_ to help him find you! It’s nothing to do with us.”

“But you summoned me!”

 _“I_ summoned you.” Ryan says, stepping forwards slightly in front of Ray, almost in a protective way. “If you’re picking a fight, pick it with me.”

“It’ll hardly be a fight.” Gavin sneers. “You don’t even deserve me laying a finger on you-”

“And what makes you so much better than me?”

Ray puts a hand on Ryan’s arm, not necessarily holding him back, but reminding him of where they are, what’s at stake. Ryan visibly relaxes, and steps back. Gavin smirks, and then, he disappears.

“W-What?” Michael demands stepping forwards and pointing at the space where Gavin had stood. “Where the fuck did he go?!”

“That’s angels for you.” Ryan shrugs, shaking his hands over the bowl he had used, before picking it up and dumping its contents into Michael’s trash.

“Dicks with wings.” Ray muses aloud, leaning back next to Michael’s fridge and shaking his head.

“-And daddy issues.” Ryan adds. He washes his hands off in the sink before standing next to Ray, casually throwing an arm around his mate.

“You know I banged an angel once.” Ray says, as if it’s the most casual thing in the world. Michael just stares at him, mouth agape, but Ray is much more focused on Ryan.

“Really?” Ryan asks. “What was it like?”

“Not great. Too many feathers, you know?”

“I get you.”

“I-I’m sorry.” Michael says. “Am I the only person who is freaking the _fuck out_ right now? My two best friends are demons… and I’m obsessed with an asshole angel who just fucking disappeared on me, after I went to all this fucking effort to summon him here in the first place. What the fuck is going _on_?”

“Chill out, love.” Comes a British voice behind him. Michael turns to see Gavin, reappeared, but this time, not alone. There is another man beside him, who Michael also assumes is an angel. However, he doesn’t look nearly as clean cut as Gavin, dark hair and blue eyes similar to Ryan’s, untidy facial hair and tattoos crawling up and down his arms. He wears formal attire, like Gavin, but he doesn’t have a jacket and his shirtsleeves are rolled up to his elbows, tie loose and messy around his neck.

“This is the guy.” Gavin says, nodding towards Michael. “Michael, this is Geoff. He’s also an angel.”

“Michael.” Geoff nods. “Ryan, Ray- long-time no see.” He smiles. Michael turns and looks at his two demonic friends.

“You guys fucking know each other?!” he demands.

Ray is silent, for once in his life, and Ryan simply shrugs. “Hardly. We… frequent the same circles, is all.”

Michael frowns, but his attention is quickly taken back to Geoff and Gavin talking.

“I just don’t get it, Geoff- it doesn’t make any sense. I took his memories, so exactly this wouldn’t happen.” Gavin says.

“I don’t know either, I'll have to do a reading.”

“I’m right fucking here!” Michael shouts. Both Geoff and Gavin turn, giving him an odd look.

“That’s another thing about angels.” Ray says. “No fucking tact.”

“Watch your mouth, kid.” Geoff warns, and surprisingly, Ray goes quiet. Geoff steps towards Michael, and places his hand against his forehead.

“This won't hurt, I promise. Keep your mind clear.”

“What the fuck are you doing?”

“It’s called a reading, relax. I’m not going to hurt you, _human_. Clear your mind, let me do my job.”

Michael doesn’t know what it is, but for some reason, he trusts this other angel, _Geoff._ Michael assumes that isn’t his _angelic_ name, and it’s just the name of his ‘vessel’ or whatever.

“Kid, you’re thinking _way_ too hard. Clear your mind.”

Michael lets his brain fall silent after that, and can only feel the faint tingling of Geoff’s fingertips as he holds his face, eyes closed tightly. After barely a few moments, Geoff releases him, stepping back with a perplexed expression on his face.

“What are you, kid?”

Michael doesn’t know what to reply to that, but thankfully, Gavin beats him to it.

“Is he a prophet, maybe?”

Geoff frowns, and shakes his head. “No, not a prophet. I’d know… I know them all.. he’s- he’s something else entirely…”

“If not a prophet… then what is he?” Gavin asks.

Geoff is quiet for a moment, staring at Michael and Michael alone. He feels uncomfortable, but for some reason, he can't let his gaze drift away from Geoff’s. His eyes are too _blue_ too _questioning_ and unreadable. Michael couldn’t look away, even if he wanted to.

Then, something clicks in Geoff’s brain like the turn of a gear, and his eyes widen. He steps back, almost in shock.

“I-I think he might be… a guardian.”

“A _what_?” Michael speaks for the first time.

“A guardian.” Geoff repeats. He is only met with confused expressions from everyone else in the room. Geoff sighs. “A guardian; a human with… special _powers_ to protect humanity.” He explains.

“And-and I’m _that?_ ” Michael asks. Geoff shrugs. “Dude, I’m just a kid from _Jersey_.”

“I don’t know.” Geoff says, looking away from Michael and back to Gavin. “Something still seems off with your little friend. Something _different_ in him, different from the other guardians I’ve met. I’m not sure what it is-” suddenly, Geoff cuts himself off, arm outstretched towards the door. It shuts with a loud bang, and Ryan and Ray stand beside it, guilty expressions on their faces.

“Where’d you boys think you're going?” Geoff asks, blue eyes shining as Ray and Ryan are pushed against the wall by an invisible force.

“Angel business.” Ray pants, struggling against the imperceptible restraints. “None of our fucking business, is it?.”

“You’re right about that.” He says, “But keep this quiet, okay? If any harm comes to this kid, I'll fucking smite you both, without hesitation. No matter what history we’ve got.”

“Relax, old man.” Ryan teases with a grin, although his words are strangled behind the hold Geoff has on him. “He’ll be fine. Secrets safe with us.”

Geoff holds gaze with Ryan for a second, and Ryan raises an eyebrow, almost challengingly. After a pause, Geoff concedes, and Ryan and Ray step off the wall, making their way out of the apartment.

Geoff turns back to Gavin. “We need to go. Get a second opinion.”

Before Michael can say anything, both Gavin and Geoff are gone, disappeared from the room.

* * *

 

All night, Michael cannot sleep.

He texts Ray a few times, but the demon doesn’t reply, and Michael inwardly curses himself for getting him involved in this. Geoff had obviously scared both Ray and Ryan off, meaning Michael was truly alone, because there was no-one else he could ever go to with this shit, without being carted off to a mental hospital.

He lies awake for most of the night, only falling into short naps of a half hour at a time, before he’s awake again, sweat pooling at his chest and his scalp, making his hair damp. All he can think about is Geoff’s words.

 _Guardian_. _A human given special power to protect humanity._

That wasn’t what he had fucking signed up for. He was an electrician from New Jersey. His family weren’t particularly religious, only showing up in church for a wedding or a funeral. He wasn’t even sure he believed in any of that _religion_ bullshit.

But then, that all changed when an angel literally landed at his doorstep, didn't it?

Michael turns, and looks at the clock on his nightstand. It reads 01:45, hardly the time to be up and about, but he’s sweating through his T-shirt and he really just feels _gross_. So he gets up, heading to his bathroom.

The shower is somewhat calming, the water steaming because nobody else has tapped into the buildings supply yet. He actually starts to feel like his life hasn’t been invaded by angels and demons and he isn’t some kind of _protector of humanity_ or whatever. He’s just a dude, standing under the shower head in his bathtub with the curtain open and Gavin just standing there staring at him and-

“-Gavin what the fuck!” Michael screams, grabbing at the shower curtain to cover himself. Gavin just tilts his head.

“What?”

“I-I’m fucking _showering_.”

“You are.” Gavin nods. “I see that.”

“So- so _why are you here_?” Michael demands. “I-Why are you fucking _staring at me…naked!_?”

“I was waiting for you to finish. Geoff and another angel are in your living room to do another reading. They said I should get you.”

“Well- well can you fucking wait until I’m clothed?”

“The reading probably would work better if you were naked, but I guess if you-”

“Get the fuck out!” Michael screams again, and Gavin disappears.

* * *

 

Michael emerges from the bathroom in a fresh T-shirt and a pair of basketball shorts a few minutes later. Gavin and Geoff are standing idly in the main room of his apartment, along with another guy, who looks _huge_ and intimidating with a giant beard and glasses.

“Here he is.” Geoff says, a small smirk playing on his face. Michael can't help but wonder if Geoff is the one who put Gavin up to catching him in the shower.

“This is the kid?” the other angel asks.

“The very one. So tell me, what _is_ he, Jack?”

The other angel, Jack, barely glances at Michael before speaking. “He’s a guardian Geoff, come on, I can feel that from here. You’re not getting rusty, are you?” he teases.

Geoff rolls his eyes. “No, I could get that- just… just really _listen_. There’s something _different_ there. Something I can't quite work out.”

Jack frowns, and turns back to Michael. He is softer in his approach than the others, searching Michael’s eyes for permission before he cups his face, one hand on his chin and one on his forehead. He is silent as he reads, and for the first time, Michael feels relaxed in the angel’s presence.

Jack releases him and steps back, and Michael chases his soft touch for a moment before he remembers where he is.

“So what’d you think?” Geoff asks. Michael catches eyes awkwardly with Gavin, who is staring at him, making his heart rate quicken.

“He _is_ a guardian, that’s clear to see.” Jack explains, looking from Michael to Geoff and back again. “But you were right, for once, Geoff. He’s _more_.”

“So what-” Michael says, catching the attention of every angel in the room. Their powerful gazes feel threatening on his body, but he swallows, standing tall and holding his own. “What am I?” he asks.

“Well, congratulations are in order, because you, Michael Jones, ae one of the only mortal descendants of the archangel Michael.” Jack says. Michael frowns as Geoff and Gavin’s eyes widen. Gavin looks to Jack like an excited child, and Geoff just looks sceptical.

“Are you sure?” he asks.

“Sure as I can be.” Jack nods towards Michael. “His soul feels _amazing_.”

Geoff steps forwards, hand resting on Michael’s chest before the human can protest. Geoff just smiles as a cool air breezes through Michael’s chest, making the hair on his arms stand up and his face screw up.

“Holy Sh-”

“Please don’t.” Jack cuts Geoff off, making him release Michael and laugh.

“Sorry. He just feels _incredible._ ”

“I wanna feel!” Gavin shouts, rushing forwards on almost unsteady feet, the gracefulness in his body gone as he bounds forwards, towards Michael.

Geoff steps back and Gavin paws at Michael’s chest, resting his palm flat at his sternum. Michael feels a rush, but it is different from the one Geoff gave him. Instead of a cool wind, Michael’s insides warm, and he can barely keep his eyes open. Suddenly, his chest is lit up blue and so are Gavin’s eyes and Michael feels like he’s _floating_.

Gavin springs back, breaths laboured and heavy. Michael’s entire body feels _alive_ for the first time since Gavin had taken away his scar.

“Holy-”

“Guys, please, I don’t want to be smote, not today.” Jack cuts Gavin off, before he can commit Blasphemy, and places his hand on Gavin’s shoulder. “Looks like you’ve found your charge, Gavin.”

Michael’s eyes narrow in confusion as Gavin’s widen, and a soft smile grows on his face. Geoff and Jack almost look like proud parents, staring between the two with love and admiration in their eyes. It makes Michael feel beyond uneasy.

“What-what the fuck does that mean?” he demands. Gavin just gives him a lazy grin, the two’s eyes connecting.

“Mean’s we’ll be spending a lot more time together, love.” He says.

“I hope you two’ll be very happy together.” Jack teases.

“Use protection.” Geoff adds, before the two disappear, leaving Gavin and Michael alone together.

“What- but… but what the fuck does that mean?” Michael asks again, panic sending him into a frenzy. “Gavin? What the fuck is going on?”

Gavin opens his mouth to explain, before he stops, almost as if he is listening to something else. “Sorry love,” he says, after a moment. “Got to fly, duty calls!”

“You can’t just fucking _leave_ me here without explaining anything?”

“I’m sorry, Michael. I’ve really got to go.” Gavin says.

“But-but how the fuck am I meant to get into contact with you? Do you have a cell phone number… or do I need to collect more fucking cupid’s blood and do a ritual to talk to you?”

Gavin frowns at the mention of Cupids Blood, but it barely registers for a second before his soft smile is back. “Michael,” he says, “There’s a much easier way to contact me than that.” He tucks his hands into his pockets, looking effortlessly powerful yet completely _simple_ at the same time.

“Pray for me.” He says. “That’s all you’ve got to do.”

Before Michael can say another word, Gavin is gone. Again.


	4. Genesis (Version 2.0)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Michael holds off from of contacting Gavin for most of the next day. He doesn't know what it is, but something tells him that Gavin’s probably busy doing angel shit and Michael doesn’t want to bother him or anything.
> 
> He then feels like he sounds like a total pussy, but for some reason, he doesn’t mind.
> 
> He spends the day with Ryan and Ray, filling them in on the limited details he knows. Ray nor Ryan really seem to be that interested, asking a few questions here and there, but when it quickly becomes evident that Michael doesn't really have any real answers, their interest falls back into video games and pizza. For demons, they don’t seem to do much… demonising.
> 
> When night time falls, Michael decides to try his hand at this praying shit.

Chapter Four/ Genesis (Version 2.0)

Michael holds off from of contacting Gavin for most of the next day. He doesn't know what it is, but something tells him that Gavin’s probably busy doing angel shit and Michael doesn’t want to bother him or anything.

He then feels like he sounds like a total _pussy_ , but for some reason, he doesn’t mind.

He spends the day with Ryan and Ray, filling them in on the limited details he knows. Ray nor Ryan really seem to be that interested, asking a few questions here and there, but when it quickly becomes evident that Michael doesn't really have any real  answers, their interest falls back into video games and pizza. For demons, they don’t seem to do much… _demonising._

When night time falls, Michael decides to try his hand at this _praying_ shit.

He’s prayed a few times in his life before, at a wedding or at Christmas, but he isn’t really too sure how to go about praying to an _angel_. Does he need a bible or a cross or something?

Michael picked up the rosary he’d used in summoning Ray, and knelt by the end of his bed like he’d seen people do on TV. He didn't have a bible verse to recite, so his own thoughts would have to do.

_Uh, Dear Gavin who art in Heaven. Maybe._

_Hallow be thy name? I’ve heard that part in a song before. I don’t really know the rest. Something about a kingdom… or- whatever._

_So, uh, this one’s for you- Gavin the angel. Do I need your actual angel name to do this? Shit, maybe I do. But then, you did tell me to pray for you, and I think you would’ve told me if I needed to do anything special._

_But anyway, I’m going off topic. Do you think maybe if you're not too busy with heaven or whatever… maybe you could come here? I have a few questions, obviously about all this shit. I mean stuff. Sorry about the swearing._

_Uh…Amen, I guess? Sorry if this was fucking awful._

“It’s okay, you did well, for your first actual prayer.”

Michael turns around at that, to see Gavin standing in his bedroom doorway him. He looks much more casual than before, jacket gone and hair gelled up. He has a soft sort of smile on his face and has his long sleeves held down in his fists, like a kid.

He looks fucking _cute,_ Michael thinks and his cheeks subsequently redden.

“Oh, hi- I guess I did it right then.” He says, sheepishly.

“There’s not much to it.” Gavin shrugs. “Just… think of my name, and ask whatever you want. I'll always be able to hear you, and I'll answer as often as I can. You’re my charge now.”

“Yeah, about that.” Michael sits down on his bed, and nods for Gavin to sit beside him. “This charge shit… what does that mean, exactly?”

“Well, you being my charge means that I’m the angel assigned to you.” Gavin explains, flippantly. Like it’s simple, topical trivia; like Michaels entire life hasn’t changed completely in merely a matter of days.

“Only really important humans get one.” Gavin continues “I'll always be here to help you and look after you, make sure you stay on the path that God intended, all that stuff. I’m basically your guardian angel, as I’ve heard some humans say.”

“Oh, okay.” Michael nods. “And this guardian stuff. All this… descendant of Michael crap… what’s that about?”

“That’s a bit more complicated.” Gavin sighs, rubbing his hands together. He looks up, to Michael, who nods again somewhat encouragingly.

“Do you know anything about angels? Like the archangels and our creation and stuff like that?” he asks.

Michael frowns and shrugs. “Not really. My family weren’t exactly… super religious or anything. I know Michael and Lucifer. Michael was the good guy and Lucifer was like the devil, right? And then they fought, or whatever?”

“Sort of.” Gavin says. “Michael and Lucifer were brothers, along with Gabriel and Raphael. They were God’s special angels, way before me or even Jack and Geoff came along. They were the only ones. And they were loved.”

“So God was basically a single dad in a sitcom?” Michael jokes. Gavin frowns, and his head tilts slightly. “Never mind.” He mutters, remembering Gavin’s ignorance of general human culture. “Carry on.”

“They were really loved… but Lucifer- he was the special one.”

“But I thought he was the devil?”

“Before that.” Gavin waves his hand dismissively. “He was like… the ultimate angel. Strong and powerful like Michael… but he was smarter, and creative and just _gorgeous,_ he was! Some of the really _really_ old angels talk about how beautiful he looked.”

“Well what the fuck happened?” Michael asks. “When did he turn into the devil?”

“God made the rest of the angels… and that irked him a little, but he was still _special_ , you know? Nobody could compare… but then… God made _you_.”

“ _Me?”_

“Humanity. He made humanity.” Gavin clarifies. “And Lucifer… he just couldn’t handle not being number one. He became jealous, which is a sin… and then eventually God banished him to hell.”

“Oh.” Michael makes a soft noise. “And then he did all that Adam and Eve stuff? The serpent?”

“Sort of. It’s more of a metaphorical story, but yeah, he kinda went _bad_. God put him in Hell to keep him out of trouble but… Lucifer was clever. He created demons, like , Ray and Ryan. He wanted revenge.”

“Against God?”

Gavin shakes his head. “Against you lot.” He says. “Lucifer still loved God, more than anything, he’d never try too… _no_. Anyway.” The way that Gavin sounds almost horrified at Michael’s suggestion makes the hairs on the back of his neck stand up a little. He isn’t sure why.

“Yeah, yeah- anyway,” Gavin continues, pulling Michael back into the story. “Lucifer wanted to start the apocalypse and end humanity, so we sent Michael to stop him. All-out war, between heaven and hell. You lot wouldn’t have even noticed really, so tied up in other things… this happened like a couple of centuries ago. You were much too busy inventing things, having sex, gorging yourselves…”

“Wow, thanks for the compliments.” Michael jokes. Gavin gives him a small, almost unsure smile. Like he understands the humour, but isn’t sure how to react. It’s strange, to Michael, how someone who looks _so_ human can come across so _alien._

“Well, you know. So, Lucifer and Michael had a big fight, it came to its climax, and Michael killed Lucifer. But, even though he was supposed to… technically, an angel killing his brother or sister is- well it’s practically _sin_. Michael he… he couldn’t live with himself.”

“He _killed_ himself?” Michael asks, shocked.

“Yeah.” Gavin nods, sounding solemn. “Done himself in with his own sword. Michael’s sword was a special one, made by God to kill Lucifer and anything else… except for Michael, nobody would’ve thought that’d happen. When he… done himself in, his grace couldn’t handle the power and just exploded, into the stratosphere.”

“His _grace?”_

“See how humans have souls? Angels, we’ve got grace.” Gavin holds his hand out in front of the two of them, turning it over and showing Michael the way it lit up white and blue in his veins.“ Michael’s grace fell and spread throughout the world, little parts of it remaining in living things.”

“And that,” Michael points to Gavin’s wrist. “Is in _me_?”

“Yeah.” Gavin nods. “Some of it went to like nature, some of those mental trees that live for hundreds of years, and stuff like that but some… made it into you.” he points at Michael’s chest, finger making a soft thumping sound at his sternum.

“Holy shit.” Michael breathes, looking down at his chest and admiring the faint glow that appears when Gavin’s finger touches it. Gavin stares, _transfixed_ almost, with a soft smile on his face.

“Beautiful.” He says, voice so low it sounds like a happy whisper. “Absolutely beautiful.”

He remains in awe for a moment, whilst Michael’s heart beats so rapidly he feels like it’s about to explode through his ribcage. Then, Gavin takes his finger away and the magic fades. The angel almost looks guilty, hand quickly flying back to his sides.

“So yeah, that’s it really. That’s the story.” Gavin says, sounding as upbeat and innocent as ever. Michael is practically sweating, heart still thumping, lips dry and palms sweaty.

“Uh…”

“Michael? You alright?”

Michael’s eyes fixate on Gavin’s, and the world comes back into focus. After a breath, he feels normal again.

“Yeah, I’m fine.” He says. “It’s a pretty cool story. I didn't know the bible got that exciting.”

“Well, it’s not _all_ exactly in the bible- yet.” Gavin says. “The war bit didn't happen that long ago. Maybe if God ever gets anyone to write an updated version, it’ll be in it.”

“Yeah, that’d be bad ass! I’d fuckin read it.”

“Good.” Gavin smiles. The two fall into silence for a moment, Gavin’s gaze steadily focused on Michael and Michael’s gaze fixated on the ground.

“Although,” he finally says. “The whole thing was kind of unfair to Lucifer. He just got a little jealous of the new baby, and God threw him in Hell. I’d be pissed too. Don’t you think?” Michael looks back up to Gavin’s face.

“I…I don’t know.” He says with a nonchalant shrug. “Guess I’d never thought of it that way.”

“How wouldn’t you have considered that?” Michael asks, with a slight laugh. Gavin’s facial expression doesn’t change, eyes blank and unreadable as he replies,

“I wasn’t told to.”

Something twists in Michael’s gut, and he isn’t sure what it is that makes him feel so eerie, all of a sudden. “Oh.” He says. “Right.”

“Anything else?” Gavin asks, clearly oblivious to the elephant in the room, represented by Michael’s uncomfortable shrug.

“Uh…Is that why I’m called Michael?” he asks after an awkward silence, thankful to find _something_ in his frazzled brain. “Because, like, I’ve got his grace… or whatever?” Gavin looks thoughtful, pondering over Michael’s question.

“I guess I didn't really think about it that way.”

“Really?” Michael asks with a laugh, Gavin’s lack of depth relaxing him. “You didn't fucking think of that? Once?”

“Well… no!” Gavin laughs, high pitched and musical; It’s the first time Michael’s heard him laugh, and he wants to cherish the sound forever. Record it on his phone and set it to his text alert, broadcast it through Twitch for seven hours and make some kind of world record.

“You idiot.” Michael can’t help but laugh too, Gavin’s being annoyingly contagious.

“ _Michael_.” Gavin coos. “Stop being _mean_.”

This only makes Michael’s laughter ring louder. “ _Micool!”_ He imitates, grinning. Gavin laughs again.

“What?”

“That’s another question I got!” Michael says. “Why’d the fuck do you have that stupid British accent?”

Gavin rolls his eyes. “Michael, you dunce- this isn’t my voice, is it? Not my _proper_ voice.”

“What the fuck does that mean?”

Gavin sighs, like it’s the most obvious thing in the world. “This body, right- it’s my vessel. There was a real bloke called Gavin Free, quite a while ago now. I've  borrowed his body, so I’ve got his vocal chords and his voice. Wasn’t anything to do with me that he happened to be English, was it? Haven’t we been over this?”

Michael laughs again, quieter. “I guess I didn't remember or I just didn’t think of it that way. I keep forgetting that you’re actually… an _angel_.”

“Bloody lunatic! Of course I’m an angel.” Gavin smiles, “Any more questions?”

Michael has more questions whizzing through his mind, of course he does, but something inside of him makes him think that he doesn’t want to know, right now. He doesn’t want to know about Gavin’s unquestioned obedience. He doesn’t want to know how betrayed by his own family Lucifer felt. He doesn’t want to know what makes the angel so oblivious to the very _very_ wrong.

“Do you wanna play video games?” he decides on.

“What?” Gavin’s head tilts slightly to the side again, eyes wide with curiosity.

“Video games.” Michael nods to the TV at the foot of his bed, his console underneath. Gavin’s expression is still blank, and Michael rolls his eyes.

“I can't believe you don’t even know about video games!” he gets up, reaching across Gavin to his two controllers, which sit discarded next to the TV remote in the corner of the bed. “Here.” He hands one to Gavin, before crawling back against his bed, sitting slouched against the headboard.

Gavin still looks confused, controller held limply in his hand, still perched at the edge of the bed.

“Well fucking come _here_ then, asshole!”

Gavin crawls up onto the bed, sitting cross legged next to Michael. He looks ridiculous, in his pressed black pants and his dress shoes and his buttoned shirt. Michael smirks at him.

“Do you wanna fucking take your shoes off, or?”

“Oh, sorry.” Gavin looks flustered, downright _uncomfortable_ , as he scrambles to unlace his shoes, and rolls up his shirtsleeves at the arms a little bit, controller gripped tightly in his hand.

“Other way, idiot.” Michael takes the controller and flips it over, trying not to flinch as their skin touches.

“Right. Thanks. So, what is this again? A video… _game_?”

Michael turns the TV on, Xbox dashboard already loaded up from being left on. “Here,” he loads up his game list. “Pick anything you want to play. It’s like a game, on the TV.”

“ _Oh_.” Gavin says. “I know this, I think! Geoff’s got one up in heaven! An Xbox!”

“Yeah!” Michael can’t help but let his lips spread into a grin as Gavin’s does the same. Something about the angel’s happiness and excitement makes him feel warm inside.

“So… what do you want to play?”

* * *

 

Gavin is simultaneously the best and worst person at video games, ever. He’s _great_ at Halo, beating Michael at almost every round. Apart from that he’s pretty… _unique._

He’s uncontrollable, he plays with his entire body, jerking and moving and squealing every time anything happens on the screen. His favourite games, apart from Halo, are the ones where he and Michael play co-op, and they get a few good hours of screaming from Slender and Michael’s personal favourite, Surgeon Simulator. Once Gavin’s got his first taste of video games, he wants to play in every way, so to please him- Michael dusts off his PS4 and drags his laptop out of the kitchen, fiddling with the HDMI cable and hooking it up to the TV in front of his bed.

“This is bloody top! Isn’t it?!” Gavin says with a grin, as they finish the first level of _I Am Bread._ Michael can feel the energy drained from his body, but remains alert, because Gavin is so captivating, it’s impossible to be bored. The sun is just rising, and Michael doesn’t have to look at his alarm clock to realise they’ve been playing all night, well into the morning.

“I have work in like, three hours.” He laughs, unsure how else to react.

“You’re tired.” Gavin says, more of a statement than a question. Michael nods, rubbing his eyes. As soon as they close, he realises how much he actually craves sleep. Gavin had been such a distraction, he hadn’t noticed.

“Here,” Gavin says, and before Michael can question him, his hands are reaching for Michael’s forehead. He feels a slight buzz, and then almost a zap. He opens his eyes as Gavin pulls away, and the world looks brighter.

He feels like he’s had the best night’s sleep of his fucking life.

“Holy shit, remind me to call you when I can't get out of bed every Monday morning.” He laughs, getting up and shutting the Xbox off. Gavin just smiles, stretching and climbing off the bed.

“No problem, Michael. You’re my charge now, remember. Anything you need, I’m here. Any time…”

He stretches again, almost like a cat, fingertips spreading in the sky. A thought crosses Michael’s mind.

“Hey, do you have like- wings? Like _real_ wings, not just shadows?”

Gavin nods. “Yeah. They’re just hidden- so they don’t get in the way and stuff.”

“Oh. Right.” Michael nods. There is a pregnant pause, before he asks, “Can… can I see them?”

Immediately, Gavin’s cheeks flare into a bright crimson, and his eyes widen. “Um… well…”

“Whoa, it’s okay- I'm sorry.” Michael quickly interjects. “I shouldn’t have-”

“-No, it’s fine, you didn't know. And angels wings are… kinda private? I guess? It’s… an intimate thing, for anything other than an angel to see another angels wings. They're kind of… sensitive, you know? They’re like a status symbol but more… _personal._ But… if you really want to-”

“-No, dude- if it makes you uncomfortable or anything, you don’t have to. Forget I asked.” Michael says with a wave of his hand, feeling oddly worried about upsetting Gavin.

“Maybe one day.” Gavin shrugs, slipping his shoes on and rolling his shirt sleeves back down. “I mean, we have sort of just met, and that.”

“Yeah.” Michael smiles. After another bout of awkward silence, he holds his hand out. Gavin eyes it curiously, before slowly lifting his to greet Michael’s in a loose, clammy handshake.

“Thanks.” Michael says, finishing off the awkward embrace with a pat on the shoulder. “For answering my questions and shit.”

Gavin grins. “No problem Michael. I, uh- put some wards up in your apartment so nothing nasty can come and get you in the night or anything. Now that you’re a known descendant of Michael, some… beings might want your blood, you know?”

“Wait, _seriously?_ Things might want to fucking kill me?”

Gavin shrugs. “It’s a possibility. But don’t worry, I engraved my mark on your collarbone, so if you ever get hurt, I'll know.”

“Mark?” Michael looks down, trying to pull down his shirt and check his chest for marks.

“Don’t worry, it’s engraved on the bone.”

“Holy _Shit!”_

“You’re welcome. See you around, Michael!”

Gavin disappears as quickly as he had arrived, leaving Michael alone on the bed. He shakes his head, almost adoringly at the empty spot where Gavin had just been, unable to fight the smile off his face.

Because he’s never clicked with someone as quickly as he clicked with Gavin. And that means that he’s most probably completely  _fucked._


	5. Your Father, Who Art In Heaven?

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The next few weeks feel a little more normal. Michael goes to work. Michael eats takeout food. Michael plays his Xbox, deciding to brush up on his Halo skills with a little help from the Master Chief collection.
> 
> His job suits him, short hours out on call, nothing too mundane or same-ish. The jobs are usually easy, a blown fuse or a faulty wire, giving his mind plenty of time to wander to Gavin.

Chapter Five // _Your_ Father, Who Art In Heaven?

 

 

The next few weeks feel a little more normal. Michael goes to work. Michael eats takeout food. Michael plays his Xbox, deciding to brush up on his Halo skills with a little help from the Master Chief collection.

His job suits him, short hours out on call, nothing too mundane or same-ish. The jobs are usually easy, a blown fuse or a faulty wire, giving his mind plenty of time to wander to Gavin.

Gavin’s eyes, not quite green but not really brown either. Gavin’s hair, sometimes floppy, sometimes gelled. Gavin’s fingers, and the way they felt when they settled on his chest. Gavin’s face, and the vacant, and misunderstanding expression it held when Michael had first questioned his own personal opinion.

For the next few nights after the first time, he considers praying to Gavin again, but something stops him. Gavin’s last visit had him up until six am, with a rocketing electric bill and calloused, stiff fingers from gripping his controller for so long. Their evening together had also left him questioning everything, from the angels and their hierarchy, to the fact that probably his two best friends in the world have actually always been demons.

The demons in question sit together on Michael’s couch. Ryan’s arm is slung lazily across the back, as always. Ray is sat with his knees up, curled into Ryan’s side, glare fixed on the TV, as always. Ryan drinks from a diet coke can, and Ray occasionally pauses to sip Malta, as always.

But it’s different. Now that the cat’s out of the bag, and Michael knows their big secret, they’re much more relaxed. There are less of the silent conversations between them, spoken only in slight nods and eye-rolls that Michael had become accustomed to. They talk about other demons they know and bitch about the angels a lot, and occasionally, Michael will see the swirl of black creep into their eyes. It lasts for barely a second though, because Ray and Ryan are both soused to being careful.

“I win.” Ray announces, releasing the controller as the kill list flashes up on the screen. Michael sighs.

“Yeah, yeah, brag about it.”

Ray rolls his eyes. “Come on, Michael, you always beat me in Halo. Clearly you’ve got shit on your mind.” He sits up, away from Ryan’s embrace, and turns sideways, to watch Michael, who sits in the armchair.

Even Ryan’s steely gaze turns concerned, settling on Michael, who uncomfortably stares at the ground.

“Let me guess,” Ryan asks. “Angel trouble?”

“Lucky guess.” Michael says quietly. Ray smiles.

“C’mon, don’t let those winged assholes get to you. What’d they do, give you a swear jar?”

“No.” Michael sighs. “It’s Gavin.”

“That British prick?” Ryan sneers. “What’d he do?”

“No, nothing- he’s great. That’s the fucking problem. We hung out the other day and… I don’t know, we played video games and shit, and it was like- for the first time, I kinda saw him look… I don’t know, happy?”

“An angel? Enjoying themselves? That’s something I’d like to see.” Ray jokes. Ryan laughs. Michael just looks.

“Not all angels have sticks up their asses like Gavin, remember. Look at Geoff- I’ve never seen an angel drink an entire bottle of Jack Daniels.”

“Very true.”

“Isn’t that like… against Heaven’s rules or whatever?” Michael asks. “Gavin seemed pretty into the whole… unconditional obedience thing the other day. It was creepy.”

Ryan sighs, leaning forwards slightly. “Michael, if there’s one thing I can tell you about angels… it’s not to trust them.” He says. “Heaven… it’s very corrupt, actually. Worse than Hell.”

“Way worse.” Ray adds.

“What? Really?” Michael asks, clearly shocked. “Aren’t you guys like… evil though? No offence.”

“None taken.” Ryan laughs. “We’re evil, sure- but we’re open about it. Heaven… heaven’s something else entirely. They like to kid themselves that what they do is good but… that’s not always the case.”

This catches Michael’s attention. He leans forwards in his seat, frowning. “What do you mean?” he asks.

“Angels… they do what they're told, plain and simple.” Ray explains. “They don’t have a conscience, a sense of right or wrong. They get their orders and they follow them. Doesn’t matter what they are.”

Ray can't even keep solid eye contact with Michael as he speaks, eyes fixed on the ground. Michael feels a few hairs stand up on his forearm, and rubs it awkwardly. The atmosphere in the room turns tense.

“So, is there anything you want to know about us?” Ryan asks, always the one to break an awkward silence. Michael breathes a sigh of relief.

“Uh, sure… I guess. What do you guys… like- _do_ exactly?”

“We… _do_ a lot of stuff. Unlike angels, we’ve got free thought and a sense of right and wrong… we just usually choose wrong.” He says with a flippant shrug. Ray nods along, before adding to Ryan’s point.

“Yeah. Shit was a lot more organised when Lucifer was around, we took orders and shit, but after we lost the war… we kind of keep a low profile. Officially there’s peace between us and angels, so we don’t fuck with them.”

“And just between us and you, they could definitely kill us.”

“Oh _absolutely_.”

“Right, angels beat demons, got it.” Michael nods.

“Although, you can kill an angel- you’ve just gotta know how.” Ryan says, an unreadable smirk settling on his face. Michael doesn’t want to ask.

“So… Gavin says his body isn’t his… and that’s the same for you, right?”

“Yep.” Ryan nods. “James Ryan Haywood and Ray Narvaez Junior are real people. Or they were. Details, they’re not important.” He says dismissively, with a wave of his hand.

“Gav says that angels have to ask permission first. Is that the same for you?”

“Gav says a fucking lot, doesn’t he?” Ray jokes. “No, it’s not the same for us. We see what we want, and we take it. And, unlike angels we can hop from body to body whenever we want too- which is a bonus.”

“Super fun.” Ryan laughs.

“But, isn’t that wrong?” Michael asks. “Just… taking someone's life away? Don’t you feel bad?”

Ray and Ryan exchange a look, before Ray turns back to Michael, and shrugs. “You gotta do what you gotta do to survive man. Ain’t that basic human nature 101?”

“But still, it’s _wrong-_ ”

“Think of it from our perspective, Michael. For us to live, someone has to die. You’re telling me, in a life-or-death situation, you wouldn’t kill someone to ensure your own survival?” Ryan asks, raising an eyebrow and smiling crookedly. Michael can't meet his eyes, and stares at the ground.

“That’s different.” He mumbles.

Ryan scoffs, clearly pleased with the reaction. “Keep telling yourself that.”

“Whatever.” Michael says. “So… why do you guys just… chill on earth? Why don’t you hang out in Hell, or whatever?”

“Hell’s boring.” Ray whines. “It’s all fucking angst and fire and shit. Plus, me and Ryan aren’t anywhere near high up enough to be actually needed for much, so chilling up here’s pretty fun.”

“Is it?” Michael asks. “Taxes and jobs and natural disasters? That’s your kind of holiday?”

“Better than being down there, by a long shot.” Ryan folds his arms, sounding suddenly defensive. Michael raises his eyebrows.

“Alright, fine- I believe you.” He says, holding his hands up. “Hell sucks, but not as much as Heaven. I got it.”

“That’s all you’ve really got to know.” Ray says, clearly satisfied with the conversation ending there, settling back against Ryan. “Rematch?” he asks.

Michael sighs quietly. He looks back down at his controller, and nods. “Sure.”

* * *

 

A day after his game session with Ryan and Ray, Michael prays to Gavin. He keeps it short and sweet, a simple invite to hang out and play games. When Gavin doesn’t appear immediately, Michael doesn’t think too much of it. Gavin’s a fucking angel after all, he’s probably busy doing… whatever he’s told to do.

But then, Gavin appears, not in a suit, for once, but a red t-shirt that says _push my awesome button_ point towards his crotch, and a pair of shorts. Michael studies his appearance confusedly, but can't help but smile when Gavin grins.

“You alright, boi?” Gavin asks.

“Did you just call me _boy_?” Michael asks. Gavin nods, excitedly.

“Well, yeah! Geoff says that it’s weird I keep showing up here in ‘work mode’ as he calls it, and that I don’t know enough human stuff that you do, so I brushed up on my human knowledge.”

“And that’s why you’re wearing a t-shirt basically asking me to touch your dick?” Michael asks, raising an eyebrow. Gavin looks down at the shirt on his torso.

“ _That’s_ what this means? Oh- I'll bloody _kill_ Geoff when I see him!”

“It’s fine.” Michael says, smiling. “I appreciate the effort… _boi_.”

Gavin’s face breaks out into a giant grin, practically beaming. “Well, I wanted you to feel more comfortable, you know? So we can hang out more often!” Gavin is like an excitable puppy, all wide eyes and twitchy movements.

“I mean… if you want to.” He adds on at the end, puppy dog eyes in full effect.

“Yeah- dude, you’re basically my fucking protection know that I’m a known descendant or whatever. Gotta have my boi by my side, keep me safe and shit!” Michael says. It comes out like a joke, but somehow, Michael knows it’s more sincere than that. And it means a lot, to Gavin, whose face lights up like a kid on Christmas morning.

Michael wonders if Gavin ever had Christmases growing up. If he ever grew up at all, or if he was just _created_ and then suddenly a guy in his mid-twenties who looks like some kind of European reality TV star.

Gavin’s visits become more and more frequent over the next coming weeks. They rarely hang out with anyone else, Geoff only occasionally joining them to drop Gavin off like a chaperone, or to poke fun at their growing friendship. Michael doesn’t mind, because Geoff swears like a sailor and knows about actual things, like movies and TV shows and alcohol. Sure, he needs at least a litre of whiskey to even get a little tipsy, but he’s _fun_.

Still, it’s nice to hang out one on one. Michael senses history between Gavin and Ray and Ryan, but Gavin never mentions them, and Ray and Ryan don’t ask, so Michael keeps quiet. He doesn’t want to accidentally start another demon-angel war, or anything like that.

The next time he ever sees Ray, Ryan and Gavin in the same room, starts with Gavin, talking about Heaven. He’s in a suit that particular day, having flown to Michael straight from ‘fulfilling orders’. It still unnerves Michael, the way Gavin can't quite understand what’s odd about the way he follows Heaven’s rules unconditionally, without question. Gavin always shrugs, and says it’s the way he was taught.

“Honestly, Michael- it’s so beautiful up there. Hopefully you’ll see it one day- not that I’m hoping you’ll die or anything. Well- you’ll die, but hopefully not soon… sorry… I’m uh, putting my foot in it again, aren’t I?”

“Sort of.” Michael laughs. “But I know you mean well, shit-head. Now come on, tell me more about Heaven. What was it like as a kid?”

“Well… you’re not really a ‘kid’, not in heaven. You’re created…. And you’re kind of just… _light_ , until your vessel is ready for possession. Then an older angel is assigned to look after you and teach you whatever.”

“Was Geoff yours?”

“No, Geoff’s _way_ too irresponsible to be allowed near the newbies anymore. I was very lucky to have an Angel called Burnie teach me.”

“Why were you lucky?” he asks.

“Burnie is the keeper of the garden, one of the most important places in Heaven. He’s the only angel who actually speaks directly to Father.”

“So, when you were like his student… or whatever, you got to like, hang out with God?” Michael asks. Gavin shakes his head, laughing sharply, at the ridiculousness of Michael’s suggestion.

“No way! I’ve never had _that_ privilege! Ever!”

“So what… you’re saying you’ve never even _seen_ God? Like, ever?” Michael is flabbergasted. Gavin just shakes his head.

“Then how do you know what you’re getting told to do comes from him?”

Gavin pauses, thinking it over for a second. “Well… I just do, I guess. Faith, innit?”

Michael sits back against the couch. “You must have a lot of faith then.”

“Well, of course I do! He’s my father and all. I'll always have faith in him. Nothing will ever change that.”

Michael sighs, knowing the argument is probably futile. Gavin will never see his point of view. It isn’t in his wiring.

“I really like hanging out here with you, Michael.” He says, changing the subject completely. “Just like… playing video games and talking and stuff. It’s way better than _working_.” He sighs, contently as his fingers dance over the buttons, familiarizing himself with the control scheme for GTA. “I wish I could do this every day.”

“So why don’t you?” Michael asks, crossing his legs Indian style, content to watch Gavin play the single-player campaign. “Just stay here, like Ryan and Ray do. Do what you want, all day. Haven’t you ever thought of that?”

“I don’t think Heaven would allow anything like that, Michael.” He sighs. Before Michael can reply, they’re interrupted by a voice from behind.

“Oh _God,_ how depressing.”

Gavin’s lip turns to a snarl and his eyes narrow at the sudden presence of Ryan and Ray, appearing in the room. Michael can immediately sense the tense atmosphere in the room.

“Watch your mouth, _Ryan_. That’s my father’s name you’re using as an _adjective_.”

“Don’t worry, I'll make him say a couple Hail Mary’s later.” Ray teases. Gavin stands up, slowly. Ray and Ryan look confident, but Michael senses that they probably know not to push Gavin's buttons too far. Even in his scrawny, British body, he looks intimidating, standing before Ryan and Ray with a dark look in his eye and his hands tucked into his pockets. Michael stays on the couch, catching eyes with Ray briefly.

“How’d you even get in here? I’ve had this place warded for ages.”

Ryan raises an eyebrow, smirking. “Think I can't get past a little Godly barbed wire? You underestimate me, Gavin.”

“What brings you here, then? What do you even want?” Gavin asks. Gone are the childish grins and the happy-go-lucky charm he held with Michael merely a minute or two ago. It shocks Michael how quickly the switch flips from Gavin, his friend- to _Gavin_ the angel.

“You’re depressing tales of upstairs mostly. You angels talk at such a high frequency, it’s pretty hard not to hear it from down the hall.” Ryan shrugs, tugging at his earlobe.

“Yeah,” Ray agrees, stepping forwards. “And it’s pretty shitty, filling _my_ best friend with false fucking information about your so-called-home.” He says, folding his arms across his chest.

“What _misinformation_?”

“All the fucking great times up there? You can’t fucking _wait_ for him to get there? To that fucking _Hell-hole_ , for lack of a better term?”

“Oh, I don’t need this from you two, not today.” Gavin rolls his eyes. Ray glares at him.

“Your so called fucking home is a shitty place to be, full of asshole who only care about their so-called ‘holy orders.” Ray practically spits, venom dripping in his words. Michael see’s Gavin’s fingers twitch, itching to clench into a fist. “It’s hardly a home at all.” Ray adds.

“Coming from two demons who can't bear to face the thought of the place they belong?” Gavin asks. “ _Rich_. Come and talk to me when you take a look at the kind of organisation you’ve got built down there.”

“No matter how much you try and avoid the truth- we came from your so-called God as well. Don’t forget that.” Ryan steps forwards, fists already clenched. Gavin’s glare holds heat, and Michael see’s Ryan’s Adams apple bob slightly, the only sign of his nervousness.

“Watch it.” Gavin warns.

“It’s true though, isn’t it?” Ray asks. “You guys hate to fucking admit that we might be a little more similar than you’d like.”

“You’re _liars_.”

“We may be _demons_ , but we don’t fucking _lie_ , aright? Not to angels.” Ray says. After a pause, he adds, a little quieter. “Not to _friends_.”

It’s the first time, in their long friendship, that Michael has ever seen anything close to hurt in Ray’s eyes.

“I’m not your friend.” Gavin says, teeth gritted.

“Not anymore.” Ryan corrects him.

“What’s your problem?” Gavin asks, looking back to Ray, whose eyes are completely black, masking his emotion. “What’s your issue, _mate_?”

“You _know_ my fucking issue!”

“Remind me then!” Gavin’s voice raises, matching Ray’s. He blinks a few times in rapid succession, and for a second, it looks like he might be holding back a tear.

But angels don’t really have emotions like that. Gavin said they didn't.

Didn’t he?

The room quickly dissolves from Gavin’s shout to an awkward, quiet tension. The only audible sound is Michael’s breathing, slow and laboured. The rest are completely silent.

Gavin swallows. “You should leave. I’m not really allowed to… consort with you anyway.”

“God tell you that?” Ryan asks. It’s a typical Ryan comment, one usually filled with snark and sarcasm, followed by a coy smirk. This time, however, the demon just sounds tired. Michael isn’t sure what that means.

“Yeah, actually he did.” Gavin replies. Ryan scoffs, and Gavin frowns at him.

“Really Gavin? Nobody’s so much as _seen_ God in a _long_ time.”

“Watch your mouth Ryan! I can and _will_ smite you.” Gavin’s clenched fist opens, and he flexes his fingers, the familiar glimmer of white and blue light sparkling at his fingertips. Ray huffs, distracting the angel.

“Don’t you realise how _pathetic_ you sound?” He asks, stepping forwards despite Ryan’s concerned expression. Both demons know Gavin could easily kill them, but Ray doesn’t look so afraid anymore, and maybe that’s even scarier. “This is what I don’t get about you angels!” Ray thinks aloud, “So keen to do fucking _good_ , but if someone high up enough told you to torch the planet, you wouldn’t fucking blink.”

“We follow orders-

“You’re _slaves_!” Ray interrupts. “Slaves to a God that you don’t even _know_.”

The words are spat from Ray’s mouth like acid, and Gavin looks beyond taken aback. His face momentarily settles into a distraught frown, like a child being told that Santa isn’t real, before it curdles, settling in a snarl.

“Don’t talk about my _father like that_!” he yells.

“He’s right!”

All eyes turn to Michael, who is now stood, unable to sit back and simply observe the spectacle of one angel and two demons, arguing in his apartment any longer. Gavin turns, a hurt expression clouding his face, making Michael’s heart lurch.

“He’s right, Gav.” Michael repeats, softer this time. Gavin’s mouth simply hangs. Not quite agape in shock or outrage, but not closed calmly either. Thankfully, before Michael can hurt him anymore, Ryan intervenes in the moment.

“When was the last time you even saw your father, Gavin?” he asks, voice quiet with caution. Like Gavin is a piece of glass, about to shatter at any moment. Gavin turns, makes a small noise, like an injured rodent. So quiet, Michael barely catches it.

“Have you ever?”

Gavin disappears.

* * *

 

The beach had always calmed Gavin. It was one of the many creations his father had crafted that he greatly admired. The process for beaches to form takes years of sediment deposition, erosion of rock at the shore and landforms. Gavin had always enjoyed stepping on fresh sand, creating an imprint that proved he was there, he _existed_ , even if only for a brief moment, before the sea would wash it all away.

When he was young and in training, before the war, Geoff would take him to the beach. It wasn’t really regulation, but Geoff insisted they wouldn’t get into any trouble. Like a field trip, he would say.

Geoff would tell Gavin the stories of the beach. Who had walked there, who had met there. Geoff would tell him that no matter what, God was always looking down and watching him from above, and that he was always listening.

So the beach makes him feel just that little bit closer to home. Closer to his father.

Gavin closes his eyes, and tilts his head back, letting the moist sea breeze wash over his borrowed face. The human skin is far from the form he’d been created as, but it was a relief to know it really does belong to him, and still holds all the same receptors it had for the real Gavin Free.

Just another one of his father’s great creations, washes up at his foot, bumping the toe of his shoe; a seashell, beautifully formed from hundreds, if not thousands of years below the surface of the ocean, and now, is whole. Gavin bends down and picks the shell up, admiring the way that colours dance off of it as the sun reflects. Magnificent.

Letting the shell fall from his fingers, he looks up towards the sun. The giant burning star created by his father, keeping every life on the planet stable. Just another miracle.

“Am I doing the right thing?” he asks aloud, peering up at the clouds. After he speaks, there is nothing but the quiet waves of the sea, foaming at the shore, before retreating, back into the cycle. “Father? If you hear me… could you give me a sign?” he tries again.

He is met, with nothing.

“Please? Anything!” Gavin can feel his voice raising, tears pricking behind his eyelids as he closes them, taking a long, deep breath. “Are you even listening to me?” he asks.

Silence falls. Even the waves fade, in Gavin’s mind. Muted.

He is alone. All this time, he has always been alone.

“I’ve done everything you’ve asked of me, father. I’ve lost friends because of you. I’ve found Michael, because of you- taken him as my charge. I'll always put my life on the line for him, father. And that’s what you want, isn’t it? How am I supposed to know I’m on the right path?”

“Please?” He tries again, after he is once again, met with nothing. The silence washes over him, and Gavin can hear the waves again. The same shell, dropped from his fingers, rests by his foot. Gavin sighs, and kicks it, watching it fly back into the sea.

“Maybe Ryan was right. Maybe you aren’t even there at all.”

Gavin flies away, unable to face the ocean much longer. However, he isn’t aware what he leaves behind him.

Standing, silently observing is Geoff. He’s been there for a while, sensing Gavin’s distress and following him worriedly. He thought it’d be a simple problem, maybe he and Michael had had an argument, or Ryan had been teasing him.

But it was much worse.

“You bastard.” Geoff says aloud, looking upwards in the same direction Gavin had, barely moments ago. “You managed to lose the one fucking angel who really still believed in you. He still had one hundred percent faith in you, and you’ve fucking lost it. You’ve taken _everything_ from us, from _me_. But I won't let you take it from Gavin. _I won't_.”

After the outburst, in a fit of strangely relaxing anger, Geoff spreads his wings, and flies upwards.


	6. Treacherous Duty

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> After the fight, Michael doesn’t see Gavin for a week.
> 
> And it fucking sucks, because he was finally starting to bond with the stupid angel who made his insides feel warm and his chest tingle, and then of course, somehow, he’s fucked it up.
> 
> He’s always had a problem with pushing people away.

Chapter Six // Treacherous Duty

 

 

After the fight, Michael doesn’t see Gavin for a week.

And it fucking sucks, because he was finally starting to bond with the stupid angel who made his insides feel warm and his chest tingle, and then of course, somehow, he’s fucked it up.

He’s always had a problem with pushing people away.

He blames himself mostly for Gavin’s disappearance, but there's a part of him which also blames Ray and Ryan. He knows there's probably more to their story, and he knows it isn’t really their fault- but he feels hurt and lonely and it’s easier to project the blame to them rather than hate himself even more.

However, no matter how much Michael hurts from Gavin’s absence, he knows that Gavin probably hurts more. Suddenly questioning everything you believe in, everything you’ve ever been taught as right. Michael had seen it all crumble in Gavin’s eyes that day. No matter how much he didn't want to believe Ryan and Ray’s harsh words, he knew, deep down, that they were true.

It fucking sucked, like most things in the world.

Ray and Ryan had been tiptoeing around Michael as he moped, silently observing the human’s behaviour. They both felt hurt themselves, but they were demons. They’d get over it.

Wouldn’t they?

Michael notices Ray’s behaviour switch more than Ryan’s. The older has always been the more quiet brooding type, happy to chip in with the odd one-liner, usually accompanied by a nonchalant shrug or a creepy smirk. Ryan is the king of creepy jokes, dark humour. Ray is the opposite. He is _chatty,_ he has a sharp and witty sense of humour. Ray is _loud_ , when he wants to be. When he talks about something he likes, he is _passionate_.

In the time since Gavin has been gone, Ray has been like a dark little cloud, sitting and stewing and staring into space. Ryan is worried about him, but he doesn't say anything in front of Michael. He’s gotten the human in enough trouble already.

Overall, the atmosphere between the three is tense. Ryan and Ray leave Michael’s apartment the following Saturday night after a few quiet rounds of COD and half a pizza, that nobody really had the craving to finish with a stilted goodbye and an awkward hug between Michael and his oldest friend.

After they are gone, Michael sinks down into his couch. The TV is still on, Xbox dashboard lit up in front of his eyes. Michael frowns, tossing his controller uncaringly to the ground, and leant back against the back of his couch. Gavin is gone, so what does it matter? What does anything matter? Gavin has disappeared and he’s taken Michael’s ability to feel whole with him, so why fucking bother?

And that’s when he hears the _thump_ at the door.

Michael sits bolt upright like a spooked cat. He’s heard that sound before, he’s _done_ _this_ before. It is almost exactly the same as the night he had met Gavin for the first time, storm brewing quietly behind his windows, curiosity beginning to rise in his gut.

He darts to the door excitedly, throwing it open and waits for Gavin to fall against his leg or back onto his chest. Maybe the angel is hurt again. Maybe he’s flown to Michael, because he knows Michael will _always_ be there to fix him.

What Michael is met with, is not Gavin.

Geoff lays, completely unconscious halfway in Michael’s doorway, blood staining the back of his dress shirt, and gathering at his head, making his hair wet and sticky. Michael’s eyes widen. Geoff does not look peaceful, or serene, as Gavin had when he fell at his doorway. Geoff’s brow is knitted in concern, his mouth curled into a grimace. A long, silver blade is gripped tightly in his left hand.

And there is another thing. Geoff _isn’t breathing_.

Michael picks the angel up by his arms, dragging him into the apartment. Geoff’s skin doesn't feel blank, like Gavin’s. It’s warm, and fresh, hot blood trickles down from his fist onto Michael’s fingers. There is no faint glow, no shimmer of blue.

Michael manages to heave Geoff over to his sofa, before sending out a panicked prayer to Gavin.

_Uh, dear Gavin who art in heaven and all that- I’ve got Geoff here and… he’s hurt. I think he’s hurt really bad and I really need you right now, Gav. I don’t know where you are or what you're doing, but I know that you’re upset and you probably fucking hate me right now. I’m sorry for everything… please- help me?_

After his prayer, Michael sits down in the arm chair across from his couch. He pulls his legs up to his chest, tucking his chin on his knee, and wraps his arms around his shins. His eyes do not leave Geoff once as he sits, and waits for Gavin to arrive.

* * *

 

There is no stir of activity from anyone, for ten minutes. Michael has paced the area of his apartment anxiously seven times, sent out thirteen more prayers to Gavin and mopped the blood from Geoff’s head and hands three times. But Michael isn't a fucking medic, and probably couldn’t take care of a human, let alone an angel and Geoff’s blood just keep on flowing, staining Michael’s couch and dripping onto his carpet.

After ten minutes of radio silence, Michael’s front door bursts open. He whips his head to face the door violently, anxiously anticipating Gavin, standing tall in all his beautiful glory. He'll glide in, gracious as Michael knows the uncoordinated idiot can be. He’ll heal Geoff and everything will be okay.

He’ll forgive Michael and _everything_ _will_ _be_ _okay_.

Through the door runs Ryan and Ray, faces painted with worry. Ryan barges in front of Michael, crouching down next to Geoff, who remains unconscious on the sofa. After closing the door loudly, Ray runs over next to him, glancing anxiously between the angel and the demon.

“Why didn’t you call us?” Ryan asks angrily, glaring up at Michael briefly, feeling around Geoff’s wrists, Michael assumes for a pulse.

“I-I didn't think… I thought Gavin was-”

“-Fuck Gavin!” Ray interrupts. “Geoff’s hurt- oh shit, Ryan- what’s wrong with him?”

“I don’t understand, what’s going on?” Michael asks, looking from Geoff to Ryan anxiously. “What are you guys talking about? How did you know he was here?”

“Don’t you fucking get it, asshole!” Ray yells. Michael flinches. “We could _sense_ him. The worse he got, the stronger it was and… it was obvious that something wasn’t right. Why didn't you fucking call us?!”

“It’s angel shit, right? You guys always say you don’t want to be involved in that!”

“This is different!” Ray steps forwards. Michael repeats his move, standing a little taller than Ray, fists clenched. But Ray doesn’t back down, and leans up, pressing their foreheads together. He looks _fierce_ , eyes completely black and lip curled into a snarl. But Michael has plenty of bark and a bite of his own, and grits his teeth.

“How?”

“Boy’s, cut it out!” Ryan yells. Ray glares, but backs down nonetheless. His expression turns concerned again as his gaze falls back onto Geoff. Michael’s face settles back into confusion.

“What’s wrong with him Ryan?” Ray asks, quietly.

Ryan’s hand sits on Geoff’s back, blood pooling around his fingers. “I-I think Geoff has _fallen_.”

* * *

 

It takes a few hours for Geoff to stir back into the land of the living. Ryan has done a pretty good job of cleaning him up, stopping the bleeding from his wounds. Michael stands at distance from the couch, back against the wall, but even without his contacts in, he can see the two long gashes parallel on Geoff’s back. He’s got a few bumps and scrapes around his head and arms, but Ryan pays most attention to his back. Michael’s thoughts wander back to Gavin and what he had said about angel’s wings.

_They're kind of… sensitive, you know? They’re like a status symbol but more… personal._

Michael wonders if the two cuts up Geoff’s back have anything to do with his status.

Ray paces around the room anxiously as Ryan tends to Geoff’s wounds, only occasionally approaching the makeshift medic and asking questions in low, mumbling tones of a language Michael has never heard before.

Eventually, Geoff wakes up. It starts with a few twitches, before he starts turning over, semi-conscious. Gavin still hasn’t shown up, which worries Michael to no end. He approaches the couch, standing over Geoff, opposite Ray, and then Ryan, who is crouched down at Geoff’s side.

“Geoff? Geoff, it’s Ryan? You with us now, buddy?”

“Ryan? I must be fucking dead- I’m in _Hell_.”

Ryan laughs softly, as Geoff’s eyes peel open, scanning around the room tiredly. “Wow. They must’ve renovated down here.”

“Believe it or not, the new Hell isn’t actually a one bedroom apartment in Austin, Texas. Sorry to disappoint.” Ray says, smiling down at the angel. Michael watches from behind them, not wanting to intrude on the oddly intimate moment. Maybe Ray and Ryan haven’t been completely honest with him about their relationships with the angels.

And it wouldn’t exactly be the first time they had lied to him.

“Aw, well- there’s always next year.” Geoff wheezes. He attempts to sit up, but has to stop himself halfway, wincing slightly. Ryan gently eases him back down.

“You’re not gonna wanna sit up for a little while, buddy. You’ve got some…” he hesitates, unable to look Geoff in the eyes. “Damages...”

Geoff frowns. Michael swears that he can see tears brimming in the dark void that is Ray’s hollow eyes. “I-I saw Gavin.” Geoff mumbles. “I-I was so mad… I just… I snapped.”

“What happened? Where’s Gavin?” Ryan asks.

“He-I don’t know… I was so _angry…_ ” Geoff’s words trail off into silence, as he lays back down onto the couch, staring into nothing. “Gavin left but I… I went upstairs.” His hand comes to rest at his chest.

“What did you do, Geoff?”

Geoff swallows heavily, breathing starting to pick up. “I think I’m going to be sick.”

Michael rushes into his tiny kitchenette and grabs a bucket from under the sink. He runs back to the couch, handing it to Geoff just in time for him to heave inside. When he stops vomiting, it looks like he is crying, short silent sobs making his body shake as he hung over the couch.

But angels don’t cry, do they?

“Geoff… we think… we think you’ve fallen.” Ray whispers, tears escaping his own eyes. “What did you do?”

“I…I _rebelled_.”

The gasps in the room are audible. Ray steps physically backwards from the couch, and Ryan drops Geoff’s hand, which he had been clutching tightly. Michael doesn’t really understand what they're saying, and he isn’t sure how to react, but judging by the look on both demon’s faces, it is serious.

“Rebelled? What does that mean?” he asks the room, but nobody acknowledges him.

“Geoff- I…I know we always said that it was bullshit but… you actually _fell_? For _rebelling_?” Ryan asks.

Geoff groans, sitting up with Ryan’s help. “Apparently, they don’t fuck around when it comes to rebellion.” He says quietly, staring down at his own hands, before reaching one to his face, furiously wiping away a few tears that had fell from his eyes. “Fuck them.” He spits once, into the bucket, venom dripping in his words as he continues, “Fuck heaven, fuck the angels and fuck _God_.”

“Geoff-”

“Fuck them!” Geoff yells. The room falls silent after that, and Geoff’s eyes remain fixed to the floor. “And get me a drink.”

* * *

 

Geoff swirls his Jack and coke in his hand as he sits slumped on Michael’s bloodstained couch, staring at the TV. Michael isn’t really sure what he was watching, other than the fact that it’s on Lifetime, so it’s probably trash TV.

“What the fuck is going on?” Michael hisses, standing with Ray in the kitchen as Ryan works on a ritual that would hopefully summon Gavin from wherever he had run off to. “Rebelling? What’s the deal with that?”

“Up in heaven,” Ray explains. “Rules are rules… and when you break them… you get punished.”

“So what, they snatched his wings because he didn't do what he was told?”

Ray shrugs. “Basically. It’s fucked up… usually there's other forms of punishment. For Geoff to actually fall, he must’ve done something they _really_ didn't like.”

“It’s that serious? Like… he can’t just say sorry and go back?”

Ray looks down at the ground, and shakes his head sadly. Michael turns to Ryan.

“There isn’t anything we can do?” he asks.

“No.” Ryan says solemnly. “All we can do is get Gavin here as soon as possible. Maybe he can give us some answers.”

Ryan lights a match, holding it above a bowl of ingredients. After it burns into a full flame, he drops it. The bowl lights up into a pale blue fire, which blows onto the three’s faces. The wind it creates wasn’t hot, nor cold, and reminds Michael of Gavin’s skin.

After a few moments of the wind, the fire dies down and there is a long, drawn out silence. Michael’s eyes search the room, anticipating Gavin’s arrival.

“That won't work.” Geoff says, from the couch. The three looks over.

“What?”

“Gavin’s off the grid. I already tried all the basic stuff. If you want to summon him, you’re gonna need something a little stronger.” He takes another sip of his drink, eyes not once leaving the TV screen.

“Like what?” Ray asks. Geoff rolls his eyes.

“Honestly, don’t they teach you kids anything anymore? I used to know demons who had to take _classes_. You’re gonna need the wrist-bone bone of a priest, a couple of pages of a bible, blood of a Himalayan mountain goat… probably throw in some essence of saint… you getting all of this?”

“Yep.” Ryan nods, already holding a pen and pad that Michael didn't even know he had.

“Incantation 67 should work with the ingredients. It’ll pull his little ass right here, and bound him so he can't run off until we let him.”

“Really?” Ryan raises an eyebrow. “A binding? I didn't even know that was possible with ingredients found on earth.”

“Yeah, well, there’s a lot heaven likes to make you think is impossible.”

“I can believe that.” Ray sighs. “You got all that Ryan?”

“I'll be back in an hour.” Ryan replies, “It’ll be quicker if I smoke out, so try and make sure nothing happens to my body.”

“Smoke out? What do you mean?” Michael asks. Ryan smirks, and for the first time that day, he looks like _Ryan_ again.

“You’re about to find out.”

Ryan throws his head backwards, and black smoke flew out of him, causing his body to shake. Michael jumps backwards, startled, but Ray holds him steady. Geoff, over on the couch, doesn’t so much as blink. When all the smoke from within Ryan’s body swirls like a tornado into the air and disappears, his body slumps to the ground, limp and lifeless.

“Dude, did he just… turn into smoke and leave his body behind?”

“Yep.” Ray nods.

Michael’s eyes widen at the image of Ryan’s body, laid out on the floor. “ _Sick_.” He mumbles.

* * *

 

When Ryan makes it back into his body, Michael is only a little scarred, so he leaves the demon to it, and heads into his living room area. Geoff is slumped on the couch, empty glass still clutched in his hand.

“You okay Geoff?” Michael asks. Geoff doesn't look away from the screen, or make effort to answer. “Well. Alright then.” Michael sighs. Then, Ray walks over, sitting down on the other side of Geoff.

Michael watches as Ray asks Geoff something in a language that Michael doesn't recognise to be human. Geoff turns to face Ray, and replies quietly. Then, Ray leans his head on Geoff’s shoulder, and Michael sees Geoff smile for the first time since he arrived.

Part of Michael wants to demand why he isn’t deemed good enough to talk to, but after a warning glance from Ray, he decides to keep his mouth shut.

“It’s ready.” Ryan says from behind them.

They all gather round a little bowl, Ray and Michael watching with anxious eyes, Geoff’s brow furrowed in concentration. Ryan stumbles his way through the incantation, looking to Geoff for approval at least every other word. The angel, or former-angel, Michael corrects himself, only occasionally nods as Ryan continues.

Then, the room turns completely white. Michael remembers the drill by now, but he can still hear Ray’s shout of _close your eyes_ before his eardrums feel completely blown, and the world is dark.

When he comes to, he’s certain he’s at least partially deaf, because the voices around him sound like they’re underwater. He cracks open his eyes, and takes in his surroundings. He must be on the floor, because the linoleum floor is flat and hard under his back. Someone is leaning over him, talking.

He’s got blood on his face and a few bruises, dripping brown hair and a giant nose.

“Gavin?”

“Michael?” Gavin’s face comes into focus, and can’t help but smile as the pain slowly fades away.

“You made it?”

Gavin nods, but he doesn’t smile like Michael knows he can. He doesn’t look happy. “Yeah, I made it.” He says, quietly.

Gavin stands straight and Michael sits up, happy his mind is clear. He can feel Ray, pulling him up, and he stumbles to his feet, leaning against the couch for support. Ray gives his hand a small squeeze, and looks at him worriedly.

Michael looks back at Gavin. He’s got blood soaking his body, but he doesn’t look in pain. If Michael had to guess by the sheer amount on his hands alone, and the long blade gripped in his fist, the blood isn’t completely Gavin’s own.

He looks out of breath, standing in the middle of the room like a cornered animal, eyes wild and clothes dishevelled. Ryan looks afraid and Ray holds onto Michael’s hand even tighter, as Geoff steps forwards.

The moment the two angels, one former, make eye contact, Gavin's lip is already quivering.

“Oh brother,” Geoff asks, “What have you done?”

Gavin throws the blade to the floor, and looks at his own hand. He looks disgusted, and Michael wonders if he’s going to throw up. If he’s human now, or whatever, like Geoff is; But Gavin doesn’t look like Geoff did, when he was found at Michael’s doorstep. He doesn’t look weak, or injured. Gavin looks _powerful_ and _afraid_ at the same time. He looks beautiful.

“They-they said you were dead.” He points at Geoff with shaky hands. “They said they’d killed you, and Michael too, and I just… I couldn’t- I didn't want to lose you. They said… they said that you’d both become a distraction to me, an inconvenience, and they’d killed you both! So I killed them.”

“Oh Gavin-”

“Geoff, I killed two of our brothers… and even worse- you’ve _fallen_.” Gavin finally says, before his legs carry him forwards, running to Geoff and holding him tightly. Geoff winces as Gavin squeezes at his wounds, but makes no effort to leave the embrace. He sniffs away the sob that threatens to escape from his mouth, and hugs his brother.

“I fell, because I rebelled Gavin. I saw you, on the beach and… I was so angry- that we served a God who didn't even care!” he says, slowly rocking the two back and forth, comforting Gavin in the way only he now can. “I started talking… shouting more like. Raising concern, that God was dead, or that he was missing and that everything we were being told just wasn’t true and… and they didn't like that one bit.”

“Oh, Geoff- you idiot.” Gavin says, sadly, releasing his friend. “I-I can't believe they’d cast you out, for that.”

“Maybe it’s because he’s right.” Ryan speaks for the first time, and Gavin turns to him. “Maybe God isn’t dead- maybe he’s missing. Maybe someone's taken him away and he’s stuck.”

“But- God’s all powerful, Ry,” Ray shrugs. “Who’d be able to take Him on?”

“He’s created his biggest enemy before,” Geoff adds. “Who’s to say He wouldn’t do it again?”

“Do you really think-”

“I don’t know.” Ryan sighs. “But I know, right now, this isn’t our concern yet. Geoff... you’re mortal now, and you’re not well. You’ve got wounds that are probably going to get infected, and I’d take you to a hospital if it wouldn’t raise too much attention. You need to get to bed, and we need to take care of you.”

“I’m fine,” Geoff dismisses him, but everyone in the room can see the blood seeping through the back of his shirt.

“No, you’re not.” Gavin says, he turns to look at Michael. “Can we put him in bed here, Michael? He needs to be looked after, properly.”

“Of course,” Michael steps forwards, towards the pair. Ryan is already throwing Geoff’s arm over his shoulder, and he and Ray help the limping man to Michael’s bedroom, leaving Michael and Gavin alone in the room. “Are _you_ okay, Gav?” Michael asks, now that they are finally alone.

Gavin doesn’t say anything at first, just pulls Michael into a tight hug, sniffing at his shoulder. “No.” he eventually whimpers. “I’m in a lot of trouble, Michael. Killing a brother… that’s a crime worse than what Geoff did.”

Michael pulls away, but keeps Gavin’s hands tight in his. “Do you think you’ll fall, like Geoff has?” he asks. Gavin shakes his head.

“No… no I won't fall for that.” He says. “It’ll be much worse than that Michael. The minute another angel catches me… I’m _dead_.”


	7. Doctor Free and Doctor Jones to The OR

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Michael’s life only gets stranger in the next few days to follow.
> 
> Having two demons, a fallen angel and a fugitive all staying under one roof would drive any normal person insane, but Michael’s starting to adapt to this new version of reality. He hasn’t been to work in days, but every angry phone call he receives from his boss barely resonates. He doesn’t need a job, not anymore. He’s the fucking descendant of the archangel Michael, and his guardian angel is wanted dead by the whole of heaven- he really doesn’t have time to change a fucking fuse.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I didn't realise how short this chapter was until i went to upload it so... sorry lol. Next week will have alot more content/drama. There's about 3(?) chapters left of the first half of this story, then I'm gonna take a break before I can get part 2 out. More to be explained at a later date :)

Chapter Seven // Doctor Free and Doctor Jones to The OR

 

 

 

Michael’s life only gets stranger in the next few days to follow.

Having two demons, a fallen angel and a fugitive all staying under one roof would drive any normal person insane, but Michael’s starting to adapt to this new version of reality. He hasn’t been to work in days, but every angry phone call he receives from his boss barely resonates. He doesn’t need a job, not anymore. He’s the fucking descendant of the archangel Michael, and his guardian angel is wanted dead by the whole of heaven- he really doesn’t have time to change a fucking fuse.

He doesn’t ask how, but Ryan takes care of his finances. He isn’t sure if it’s a spell or actual robbery, but suddenly there's more than a hundred and thirty-seven dollars, eighty-two cents in his bank account and his rent is paid off in advance for the next three months. Michael’s landlord has always been a bit of an asshole, but now he’s ahead on payments, she doesn’t give him any trouble, which he’s relieved about. He can’t imagine what she’d say at one bleeding man and one bruised angel staying under her roof, let alone rent-free.

Geoff doesn’t leave Michael’s bedroom. Gavin spends most of his time in there too, cleaning Geoff’s wounds and helping to heal him. Ryan keeps bringing home new spells and enchantments and rituals which he swears are helping, but Geoff still bleeds through his bandages and winces when he stands.

Being the only human in the room, Michael takes the brunt of the responsibility of teaching Geoff how to survive. Simple things, eating and drinking and showering and shitting. Geoff hates most of it and complains endlessly, but Gavin promises that secretly, he’s grateful.

Geoff falls deeper in love with video games than before, and Michael’s Xbox doesn’t leave the room. It isn’t too bad though, because Ray brings his own down and hooks it up in Michael’s living room. There’s always some game going on, a tournament or a competition. Gavin squeals when he plays horror games with Michael, and Geoff laughs manically when he fucks them all over in _New Super Mario bros._   Michael doesn’t remember ever buying a WiiU, but then, he doesn’t remember buying half the shiny new appliances in his apartment.

All come courtesy of Ryan, and his mysterious gold credit card.

Geoff sleeps in Michael’s bed, and sometimes, Gavin curls up next to him. The angel doesn’t actually need to sleep, but it is a comfort to Geoff, having someone beside him. He suffers from nightmares that nobody talks about, but they all hear, in the dead of the night.

Michael sleeps on the couch, but he’s been doing that off and on for over a year anyway, so he isn’t too bothered. He isn’t sure where Ray and Ryan go at night. He’s an erratic sleeper, so he often wakes up to find the room empty. Sometimes, the demons will be silently playing the Xbox on the armchair at four am, sometimes, they’ll have disappeared without a trace.

But, it’s not exactly out of character for Ray and Ryan to be two shady motherfuckers.

Ryan’s been an odd kind of guy since they first met, never one to talk much about himself or his life, and Ray’s always liked his own space, so the two keep to themselves. Michael can still sense the awkward tension between them both and Gavin, but for some reason, he doesn’t feel compelled to ask.

Exactly one week after Geoff landed at his doorstep, Ryan and Ray disappear again in the night and don’t show up the following morning, so the apartment is mostly empty.

Gavin wanders out into the kitchen where Michael is tiredly sipping at his bitter coffee.

“Geoff’s asleep.” He says. “First time he’s soundly slept through the night.”

“That’s good.” Michael nods. Silence falls in the kitchen, Gavin standing awkwardly in the middle of the room, Michael at the edge. Gavin looks at Michael, and smiles so endearingly that Michael feels his heart swell a little.

But, he supresses the weird feelings inside him, putting it down to magic and angelic grace because _no_ , he is _not_ having _those feelings_ for his guardian angel as his ex-angel buddy bleeds and snores in the next room.

“Sorry about all this, Michael.” Gavin eventually says. Michael frowns.

“For what?”

“Just… dragging you into all this.” he sighs.

“Gav, it’s not your fault that you're my guardian or what the fuck ever. Don’t feel bad.”

Gavin smiles at that. “Oh Michael. You’re so lovely, you know?”

Michael blushes, because nobody’s ever called him _lovely_ before. He isn’t sure how it makes him feel, but quickly decides that it’s a good kind of indescribable feeling.

He’s forming a reply in his head, when he hears a crash of thunder outside. Gavin’s facial expression turns from placid to terrified in less than a second. Light shines, and Michael closes his eyes tightly on muscle memory alone. When he opens them, one man and one woman, he assumes angels, stand in front of Gavin.

The girl is pretty with long blonde hair and the guy is muscular with a light stubble around his chin. They dress formally, but have blades gripped in their fists.

“Barbara. Blaine.” Gavin looks to the two of them. He steps back a little, putting an arm out in front of Michael, protectively. “What are you doing here?”

“Orders.” Barbara says, quietly. “Gav… you’re a fugitive now. We’ve been sent to take care of you.”

Michael would think she sounded sad, if angels could even sound sad at all.

“Don’t do this.” Gavin says, taking his blade out of his jacket. “Please, guys- it doesn’t have to be this way.”

“Sorry Gavin,” the other angel, Blaine, says. “But orders are orders. Geoff is a traitor and Michael is….”

“He’s _what_?” Gavin asks, anger tinting his words. For a second, Michael forgets the situation and feels touched that Gavin is so protective over him.

Barbara looks as if she is swallowing back a few tears, before she says, “An abomination. They’re saying he’s a waste of grace and not worthy of the Archangel Michael’s name.”

That riles Michael up. Sure, have it out with the angels, but pick on _him_ for nothing more than something he didn't even ask for? He can’t help what he is, and he thinks he’s doing a pretty fucking good job dealing with it too.

He wants to lash out, storm up to fucking heaven and hash it out with God himself, but he knows the likelihood of that ever happening to be slim, and keeps his mouth shut. Besides, Gavin looks like he holds enough anger for the both of them, as he holds up his blade, pointing it at the two angels in front of him.

“You don’t have to do this.” he says again. “Fly back home. I won't give you another chance.”

“I’m so sorry, Gavin.” Barbara says, gripping her own blade tightly. “But we can't do that.”

Michael is roughly shoved back into the kitchen isle by Gavin, who steps forwards to block the first attack. However, it quickly becomes clear that the angel’s orders aren’t to kill him, but to kill Gavin, who is surprisingly holding his own well against two angels who look a hell of a lot tougher than he does.

Michael ducks behind the kitchen isle as Gavin carries the fight away from the kitchen and into the main room. Behind the isle, he can't see much and can only hear the clinking of metal and grunting, which is either a good, or terrible sign.

 _Where the fuck are Ryan and Ray?_ He wonders, as he watches Geoff stagger out of the bedroom. His eyes widen, and he shuffles towards the kitchen, ducking behind the isle next to Michael.

“What the fuck did I miss, kid?”

“Those two dick-bags, Barbara and Blaine just showed up and said a bunch of shit that you're a traitor and I’m a fucking abomination. Gav got real mad and now they're kicking the shit out of each other.”

Geoff’s fingers grip the counter and he peaks up over the edge for a few seconds, before quickly darting back down.

“Gavin’s kicking the _shit_ out of them both. Even Barb- and she's one of the best.” He whispers.

“For real?”

“Yeah,” Geoff nods. “Her and Gav… they’re good friends. Always have been, they sort of grew up together. He’s never been able to get the better of her.”

“They’re _friends_?” Michael asks incredulously. Geoff nods again, and Michael’s expression can only sour further. “Then why is she trying to kill him?”

Geoff’s lips twitch into a sad looking smirk for less than a second, as his eyes wander from the floor up to Michael’s.

“Haven’t you figured this shit out yet, kid?” he hums. Michael looks at Geoff, really _looks_ at him for the first time. His eyes are big and blue and sparkling, but they don’t look happy.

“Orders?” he asks. Geoff nods.

“Orders.”

Before Michael can question Geoff further, he hears the sound of a blade hit the ground. There is a soft, choking sound and a gasp, and suddenly, every hair on his body stands up because _what if Gavin is in danger_?

Michael jumps forwards standing up, ready to dart over the isle and run to the angel’s rescue.

But he doesn’t need to. He freezes, and watches as Gavin holds Barbara’s head in his hands and blood trickles out of her mouth, shallow breaths stuttering. He’s a little ways away but Michael can still see the tears falling from Gavin’s eyes.

“I’m so sorry.” He hears the angel whisper.

Blaine looks to be too in bad shape, standing barely a foot away from them with blood staining his clothes. “Oh, Gavin.” He says. “You’re going to regret this.”

Blaine disappears along with Barbara’s body. The only remains of her there are two scorched wing marks on Michael’s cheap fake wood flooring. The wing print is stretches, as if the wings were ready for take-off, their span maybe ten feet, maybe more across the ground. Gavin places his palm flat on the print and sniffs, as Geoff stands up beside Michael.

“Is he okay?” Michael whispers. Geoff shakes his head.

“He’s not okay Michael.” He sniffs, as if he’s holding back the tears himself. “He’s probably about as far from okay as he could be right now.”


	8. Heaven's Pariah

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> After Blaine disappears, Gavin slowly lets go of Barbara’s face, laying her body down on the ground. As he releases her she begins to glow faintly, bright yellowish light enriching her corpse. For a few moments, Michael wonders if she's about to ressurect until he sees Gavin's tear stained cheeks and Geoff's devastated expression. Gavin backs away from the body, but doesn't take his eyes off her. Barbara’s body continues to glow, until the brightness amplifies and whites out the room. When it fades and Michael re-opens his eyes, her body is gone, the wing-print on the floor faded out to a soft grey.

Chapter Eight// Heaven’s Pariah

 

 

 

After Blaine disappears, Gavin slowly lets go of Barbara’s face, laying her body down on the ground. As he releases her she begins to glow faintly, bright yellowish light enriching her corpse. For a few moments, Michael wonders if she's about to ressurect until he sees Gavin's tear stained cheeks and Geoff's devastated expression. Gavin backs away from the body, but doesn't take his eyes off her. Barbara’s body continues to glow, until the brightness amplifies and whites out the room. When it fades and Michael re-opens his eyes, her body is gone, the wing-print on the floor faded out to a soft grey.

“It’ll be gone completely within a day.” Gavin says quietly, turning to face Michael and Geoff. His forlorn expression almost rips Michael’s heart apart on the spot, and he wants nothing more than to reach out and pull Gavin into an embrace. Tell him it's okay, he did nothing wrong and everything is going to be absolutely fine.

Michael is a terrible liar, so he settles on doing nothing at all. Comforting lies die on his tongue as he stands in silence, watching Geoff walk over to Gavin and throw his arms over his narrow bony shoulders, pulling him close. Gavin's arms come back around Geoff and he rests his head on the ex-angel's shoulder, quiet human sobs making his body tremor. Gavin cries silently, and it's unlike anything Michael has ever seen before. Gavin is unlike anything Michael has seen before.

Geoff says nothing, just continues to rub Gavin's back soothingly until he stops his inaudible tears and detaches himself from the emotions. His face transitions back to its blank, neutral state, but the tears still linger in the corners of his eyes.

“You okay, Gav?” Michael asks.

Gavin shakes his head and wipes his damp cheeks with the cuff of his shirt. “No Michael, I’m really not alright at the moment. I have to go.”

His voice is hoarse but nobody comments on it. Gavin clears his throat without being asked to, Michael's mouth hangs open in a half-formed  _why._

“I already unbinded you.” Says Geoff. Gavin nods, and flexes his bloodied fingers a little. Michael watches as the cuts on his hand slowly begin to fade. However, he winces at the bend of his knuckles.

“Why are you leaving, Gav- where are you going?” Michael asks. Gavin sighs.

“I’ve killed three angels now, Michael. Three of my own kind, meaning I’m probably Heaven’s most wanted. It’s too dangerous for me to stay here.” His words are so soft-spoken, Michael leans in to hear them. He catches them, of course, and acts on his first natural instinct to the prospect of Gavin being anywhere but  _here_ with  _him._

“Bullshit!” he steps forwards. "You belong here!"

“I wish that was true, but it’s not.” Gavin says. He doesn’t sound so choked up anymore and he straightens his back, standing tall. He looks serious, and Michael isn’t really sure how to convince him. Because maybe Gavin’s right. Two angels had already found their way here, so how long until the next ones? Michael swallows the saliva that lingers in under his tongue, and takes a breath, before shakily admitting the very truth that he had being trying to hard to ignore.

“But- I don’t want you to go.”

Gavin smiles at that. “I don’t want to go either Michael… but I have to. Hopefully not forever, but maybe until things settle down a bit. I’m still _your_ angel- I’m not leaving you anytime soon. You can still pray to me too, if you really do need me.”

Michael sniffs, determined not to let himself cry. “I-fine, fine.” He sighs. “Just… here,” he fumbles in his pocket, handing Gavin over his cell phone. “Take my phone. Maybe instead of prayers… we can just talk on the phone? Or like, text?”

Gavin turns over the phone over in his hands a few times before tucking it into his pocket, a strange inquisitive smirk on his face. “Alright, I can… text.” He eventually says.

“I’ll fucking buy a new phone and text the number as soon as, okay? And as soon as I call, you better answer!”

“I will.” Gavin nods. He looks around the room, and then down to the floor, where the faded wing-print still remains. “I should go.” He says, and Geoff nods. “I’ll put some new wards up so the other angels don’t come back here. Hopefully, I’ll see you soon.”

Michael doesn’t get a chance to say goodbye before Gavin has disappeared.

* * *

 

It’s not till an hour later when Ryan and Ray walk back through the apartment door. Michael is sitting on the sofa next to Geoff when they walk in, and the two stand abruptly, glaring at the demons.

“And where the fuck have you two been?” Michael demands. Ray frowns.

“What are you, my mom? We went out, alright? Where’s Gav?”

“He’s fucking gone.” Geoff says quietly.

“Gone? Gone where?” Ryan asks.

“Into fucking hiding.” He explains. “Two angels came over here looking for him, with orders to kill him. He killed one and the other fled, and now, he can’t stay here because they’ll find him again.”

Ray raises his eyebrows, and looks to Ryan, whose guilty expression speaks volumes alone. “Shit, I- we didn’t realise…”

“Well, you weren’t here to back him up, and now he’s fucking _gone_.” Michael says with a scowl, glaring at the two. Ryan sighs.

“We didn’t know it’d be that serious, alright? We’re sorry.”

“Wait…” Geoff takes a step forwards, raising an eyebrow. Both Ryan and Ray immediately tense under Geoff’s scrutinizing gaze, and Michael is surprised by how much power the former angels still holds over them, even in his human form. “What do you mean, you ‘didn’t know it’d be _that serious_ ’?”

Ray awkwardly shifts from foot to foot, and exchanges a nervous glance with Ryan. That agitates Michael to no end, because Ray’s supposed to be his fucking best friend. He’s not supposed to be hiding things from him.

Michael takes a step forwards, level with Geoff. “Ray? What the fuck?” he asks.

Ray squirms. “We, uh- we kinda knew angels were coming, so we cleared off.”

“You fucking _what_?”

“We had to!” Ray shouts. “Angels could fucking rip us apart with their bare hands, Geoff- you know that!”

“That might be true, but you don’t fucking run and hide when you know your friend is in trouble. You could’ve warned us!”

“We stay out of it.” Ryan says. “From the beginning, we’ve said that we don’t fuck with angel business. We’re not involved.”

“Yes you are!” Michael exclaims. “You’ve always been involved, both of you! Every fucking step of the way, you’ve always been there, from the moment you helped me summon Gavin.”

“You’re our _friend_.” Ray says. “We were just helping you out. Nothing more, alright? We didn’t sign up for all this shit- we knew the angels were coming, and we didn’t fancy fucking dying so we left!”

“But what, it was okay for Gavin to die instead?” Geoff asks. The room falls silent at that, and Michael feels tears prick at the corner of his eyes at the mere thought of Gavin’s wings being the ones printed into his floor. He notices Ryan eyeing the wing-print.

“Gavin killed another angel, right here in the room.” He says, catching Ryan’s eye. “That didn’t have to fucking happen. If you’d said something, nobody had to die, Gavin didn’t have to fucking _kill_.” Michael snarls, the familiar feeling of angel bubbling from his gut. Surprisingly, Ryan doesn’t say a word, no witty comeback in sight. Ray doesn’t even look him in the eye, and this urges Michael to continue, because they deserve to feel bad, in they deserve the heavy burden of guilt on their shoulders. “No matter what the situation, an angel died here- a fucking good angel too. That’s on you two, not Gavin- _you._ ”

“Which angel?” Ryan asks. Geoff sighs, eyeing the print.

“Barbara.” He says quietly. Ryan curses under his breath, banging his fist softly against the wall, and Ray folds his arms tightly across his chest. Obviously, they both must’ve known her. For two demons who spend most of their time badmouthing angels, every time Michael meets another, Ray and Ryan seem to be tied to them somehow.

“We’re sorry Michael… but, it was too dangerous.” Ray says quietly. Michael scoffs.

“That fucking apology means nothing, Ray. You fucking ran because you were scared, and others suffered because of it.”

“Of course we were fucking scared!” Ray spits back. “You guys don’t seem to understand this, but us?” he looks to Ryan, and then back to Michael. “Demons, we’re a dying breed!”

“What the fuck’s that supposed to mean?” Michael asks. Ray sighs.

“Why do you think when you summoned a demon, you fucking got _me_? It’s got nothing to do with how close I was… I barely do any work for Hell anymore. I wasn’t just the nearest skilled demon in a five mile radius, I’m the only fucking demon in the state, apart from Ryan. We can’t die, Michael- we die and our fucking species is down in considerable numbers.”

“That doesn’t mean shit.” Michael scowls. “You’re short in numbers, sure, but that doesn’t justify running from this situation.”

“We can’t die here, Michael- and not just because we’re low in numbers.” Ryan explains quietly. “We’re scared of dying- for good fucking reason.”

“Scared?” Michael asks. “Why are you scared?”

“When a demon dies… we don’t get the same options humans do. There is no path to redemption and no crossroads to heaven or to hell. When a demon dies… the only way is down.”

“But Hell is where you guys were created, it’s your home… wouldn’t you just… carry on fucking living?” Michael asks. He’s already bored of the conversation, sick of the sob story, but they just keep on going. Ray shakes his head.

“When a demon dies…we become tortured souls. Forever.” He says. “And trust me, that’s the worst eternity you could ever live.”

“I don’t have to listen to this bullshit.” Michael huffs. Walking past Geoff, and pushing through Ryan and Ray who both lurk by the doorway wearing similar guilty expressions. He grabs his coat off the hook and yanks the front door open. “I’ve got a phone to buy. Think you can stick around long enough to make sure Geoff doesn’t bleed out overnight if that’s not too much fucking responsibility?!”

He doesn’t wait for a reply before stepping into the hall, slamming the door behind him.

* * *

 

When Michael gets home, Ray and Ryan are sitting silently together on the couch, having one of their silent conversations. The TV glows in the background on mute, but neither pay attention.

“Where’s Geoff?” Michael asks.

“Asleep.” Ryan says. Michael nods, but says nothing. He catches eyes with Ray, who is looking at him with the guiltiest puppy-dog expression he’s ever seen. When the fuck did he take his glasses off? When did Ray’s eyelashes get so fucking long?

“We’re uh… we’re gonna go.” Ray says, when Michael tears his eyes away. Michael just nods and the two stand, making their way to the door. Ray lingers for a little while, looking back at him, but Michael refuses to make the contact. He’s still mad, no matter how sad his two demon friends look.

With Ray and Ryan gone, Michael settles down on his couch and relaxes, for maybe the first time in several weeks. His apartment is actually _empty_ for once, except for Geoff, whose faint snoring can be heard coming from the bedroom.

Michael pulls out his new phone from his pocket, and starts typing.

_To: Lindsay_

_This is my new number, I lost my phone like an idiot. – Michael_

_-_

_To: Gavin_

_…_

He stares at the phone for another few seconds, unsure of what to say exactly. Can he just start off with _hello_ , or have things escalated well past that? Does he _need_ to tell Gavin about Ray and Ryan, or will that just hurt him more?

He locks the phone, decided a phone call would be better, later, just as a text comes through from Lindsay.

_From: Lindsay_

_So you’re not dead. I was wondering why you’d been MIA for weeks. We should hang out soon!_

Michael sighs, but doesn’t reply. Lindsay’s probably his only real friend in the whole state, except from Ryan and Ray, who had actually been lying to him the whole time, so he isn’t sure how to consider that as _friendship_. He’s been a shitty friend to Lindsay however, with all this heaven and hell shit distracting him. And it’s not just that, the things he’d usually do with Lindsay, like eat pizza and play video games and tells stupid stories and jokes had been completely forgotten about and replaced with teaching Gavin how to have fun, hanging out with him, learning as much as he can. If anything, he’s dropped Lindsay for his new exciting friend.

He’ll have to hang out with her soon.

Before he can text back, proposing a hang out, a faint _wooshing_ sound is heard from in the hallway. The hair on the back of Michael’s neck stands up violently, because by now he _absolutely_ knows the sound of a fucking angel landing.

The phone forgotten, he bolts up from the couch and down the hallway towards his bedroom where Geoff sleeps, kicking the door open. He doesn’t have any weapons but his fists, and he knows he certainly can’t take an angel, but fuck it- he’s not a coward, like Ryan or Ray. He’ll go out fighting until his last fucking breath.

He busts into the room, ready to go, but stops himself at what he sees.

Jack, the first angel to ever put him at ease, sits at the edge of the bed, silently watching Geoff. He doesn’t even turn around when Michael busts in, focusing on the steady rise and fall of Geoff’s chest.

“I’m not here to hurt him, or you.” Jack says. Michael swallows, walking further into the room. He wants to be close, just in case this is a trick or a plot and Geoff _is_ in danger, but he doesn’t want to get too close, because it looks like an intimate moment between the two that he doesn’t want to intrude on.

“I’m breaking Heaven’s rules right now, but I had to see him.” Jack sighs. He reaches out, like he’s going to touch Geoff’s face, but stops at the last second, retracting. “Technically, being here without killing you both is now treason.”

“Oh.” Michael says. Jack just huffs out a breathy, joyless laugh. “How’d you even know he was here?” Michael asks. Jack turns around, looking at him for the first time. “Gavin said he warded the shit out of this place. How’d you find us?”

“Well, I know Geoff, and I figured if he was in trouble, he’d go to Gavin, and Gavin’s only safe bet would be you. He can’t keep away from you, Michael.” He says, a small smile playing on his face. Michael shrugs, folding his arms.

“Well, I guess I am his charge and whatever.” He says. Jack shrugs.

“Well, maybe. But, I don’t know, it feels like it’s more than that.” He says quietly Michael frowns.

“What do you mean?”

Jack sighs. “It’s just… the way he used to talk about you to me and to Geoff… like you were the God-damn sun or something.” Michael feels butterflies swirling in his stomach. Gavin talked about him, to the others? He doesn’t even have enough focus away from Gavin to question Jack about his sudden willingness to commit blasphemy. Jack doesn’t notice his internal battle, and carries on speaking. “It’s like… in his eyes, you are that… _divine_ _perfection_ that all the scriptures talk about.”

“I’m just a kid from Jersey.” Michael laments. It’s his go to excuse to avoid questioning Gavin’s affection to him. He doesn’t want to admit that he’s scared of their connection, so it’s easier to pretend that Gavin doesn’t feel it.

“You’re much more than that, and you know it, Michael.” Jack smirks, before turning back to the sleeping fallen angel. “Geoff used to talk about you too, said he thought you were really something special.”

“He did?” Michael asks. This is more of a surprise to him, because before he fell, he rarely saw Geoff. They hung out a few times, forming a loose sort of friendship, their only connection being Gavin. But with Gavin all over the place in the past week or so, they’d been growing closer. Michael could never tell if Geoff stayed with him out of inconvenience, or if he actually liked him.

“Do you always think this hard?” Jack asks, causing Michael to flinch. “Sorry, it’s just I don’t like to listen, but you’re thinking _really_ loud.”

Michael gulps. “Sorry.”

“No, it’s my fault. I’m way too good at reading people.” Jack laughs. “Except for Geoff. I could never quite get into his head, despite all the years I’ve known him. But then, I guess I’ve never really needed too. Even now he’s mortal, I still can’t get in.”

“He misses you, I think.” Michael tells him. “He hates talking about Heaven, but when he does, he always mentions you.”

“I just wish things didn’t have to go the way they did.” Jack sighs. He rubs his hand softly over Geoff’s face, across his hair which sticks damp against his forehead. He’s starting to shake again too, face screwed up in a tell-tale sign of a nightmare. “I’ll bet he has some awful nightmares.”

“He does, yeah.” Michael nods. As Jack’s fingers brush across Geoff’s forehead, he stills, falling back into a peaceful sleep. “It started getting better when Gavin was staying with him… but now he’s gone.”

“He killed Barbara. That’s gotta be rough on him, they were very good friends. I’d try and keep an eye on him, if I were you. Heaven’s out to get him.” Jack says. Michael nods.

“I know. I’d get Ray and Ryan to keep an eye on him, but I’m sort of angry at them.”

“I won’t ask.” Jack sighs. “The less I know the better, that way I can’t get you in any trouble. I don’t know what they did, but I know they feel really bad about it. And they just want you to know they’re sorry.”

“You can read that off them, even from here?” Michael asks. Jack nods. “That’s pretty fucking impressive.”

“Thanks.” Jack laughs, standing up. “I should really go. I don’t want to lead the angels to you or anything. Gavin’s warding is pretty efficient, so nobody should come after either of you. It’s mainly Gavin they’re after anyway.”

“Do you think they’ll catch him?” Michael asks. Jack looks to the ground, biting his lip worriedly.

“Honestly? On his own, yes. He’s in danger every second he’s away from you, Michael. You keep him sane, and your power keeps him safe. Those angels were searching for days before they found him, because your power… it radiates around him, strengthens him. Gavin would never have been able to take Barbara down, or injure Blaine the way he did if you weren’t there behind him.”

“For real?” Michael asks, raising his eyebrows in shock. Jack nods.

“The quicker he gets back here, the better. That’s all I really know.”

“Thank you, Jack. Seriously, for everything.”

Jack nods. “No problem. Goodbye, Michael.”

* * *

 

The next day, Michael sits on the couch playing with his phone in his hands. Occasionally, he’ll raise it to his face, start a text, delete it and tap his phone against his lip, before putting it back down. Nobody is around to watch his indecisive display, Ryan and Ray have remained scarce since the mini-blowout following Gavin’s departure, and honestly, Michael doesn’t blame them. Even if they are sorry, he’s still kind of pissed.

But not as much.

Now, he’s more focused on the idea of Gavin being in danger the further away he is from him. He doesn’t really want to admit that he more wants Gavin home for the more selfish reasons of just having the Angel close, but he has to be truthful to himself and acknowledged that there’s a lot going on in his head and his heart that revolves around Gavin that’s clearly more than just friendship. It’s love, and whether it’s platonic or more, he still hasn’t figured out for himself.

Because yeah, he loves Gavin- but does he really want to fuck him? Do angels even fuck? Do they even _have_ genitalia?

There are all questions Michael didn’t even think to ask Gavin when the angel went through everything with him. As far as he knows, angels don’t even do the whole natural reproduction thing, so maybe Gavin doesn’t have the equipment or simply doesn’t have the desire for sex. He isn’t even sure if he wants it himself, but he has caught Gavin’s face flash up more than just a few times when he jerks off in the shower. There’s something about the two being connected that just stops his thoughts from ever straying far from the angel.

But even if Gavin didn’t want sex, Michael would still be with him. He wants Gavin to be the first thing he sees when he wakes up in the morning, the last thing he sees when he goes to sleep. The touch of Gavin’s fingertips against his skin is exhilarating enough, he can’t even imagine the feeling of a mere _cuddle_ , bare skin against bare skin.

Maybe with their whole electro-shock connection thing, sex would be _too_ over-stimulating.

But forget sex. Gavin’s in danger. Michael can’t even put the words he needs into a text message, and settles on calling Gavin instead. The phone rings and rings but eventually, clicks to voicemail, the greeting Michael had set himself over a year ago playing in his ear.

_This is Michael’s cell. You know what to do._

He rings a few more times, but when it becomes clear that Gavin isn’t picking up he groans. He settles on leaving a voicemail, and prays to any powers that be, considering that maybe God isn’t listening- that Gavin figures out how to play it.

_This is Michael’s cell. You know what to do._

_Hey, Gav it’s me- Michael. You need to come home. Jack came over to see Geoff, and he told me our connection is what keeps you strong and you’re not safe out there on your own and… I just need to see you, okay? I need you to call me back or text or something so I know that you’re not hurt and you’re okay. I miss you, Gav- I miss you a lot and I want you to come home so I know you’re safe. Call me back, I- uh. I love you._

He hangs up the phone and sends the voicemail, before grabbing a pillow off his couch and screaming into it. No way in fucking hell did he just leave a voicemail with _I Love You_ at the end of it… no way.

“No way.” Geoff says from behind, startling him. Michael blushes, because he could’ve sworn Geoff was sleeping. “You love Gavin? You’re finally admitting that?”

“What do you mean finally?” Michael asks, as Geoff walks over and joins him on the couch. The fallen angel scoffs.

“Dude, everyone knew. God probably knows too,” he glances up at the ceiling, smirking. Michael notices for the first time, that Geoff is clean shaven. He looks ten years younger, maybe more, and the difference is shocking.

“I… I don’t even know- I just said it, okay. It’s no big deal, I don’t want to talk about it.” Michael folds his arms. Geoff smiles at him.

“Okay, fine. How’s Jack?” he asks. Michael shrugs.

“He broke laws coming to see you but he said he had to. Said it must be hard on you and Gav and he misses you and shit.” Geoff nods along to Michael’s retelling of the events, but doesn’t make a comment, just sighs, reaching for the TV remote. He turns the channel to Lifetime, and sits back in the couch.

“Lifetime? Trash TV, really?”

“Sh, _Little Women NY_ is coming on next.”

* * *

 

Over the next few days, Michael calls and calls and calls until eventually in his call log he’s only got Gavin’s name twenty four times and in his messages there’s only Gavin’s thread beside Lindsay’s, over thirty text messages inside it with no replies.

He’s more than worried about Gavin, and the only thing keeping him reassured that Gavin’s still alive is the faint humming in the back of his brain he’s felt ever since they first touched. Geoff watches him with a cautious silent look most nights as he paces up and down the room hanging on the edge of the dial tone.

He refuses to call Ryan or Ray for help. As far as he’s concerned, sorry or not, he’s still mad at them both. They said they didn’t want to get involved in ‘angel business’ anyway, right? So why even bother.

However, this doesn’t stop Geoff who’s probably the more rational of the two. He’s been taking the whole ‘suddenly mortal’ thing remarkably better and has somehow gotten wiser since. It’s like the rose-tinted glasses have been knocked off, and he finally realises the difference between his life as an angel and his life now. He calls Ryan and Ray, who show up in less than a minute, already discussing plans and maps and where they’re going to look. Michael sits in a silent protest the entire time, arms folded tightly over his couch because he’s got too much pride to ask for their help. He catches Ryan and Ray’s guilty glances every now and then, but ignores them.

Ryan and Ray set out on the Sunday, leaving Michael and Geoff alone again. The two’ve been getting on surprisingly well, despite the circumstances and Michael can’t quite believe how quickly he’s fallen into friendship with Geoff. Geoff tells the best stories, and he’s always got Michael hanging off his every word. Geoff can drink Vodka like water. Geoff loves trash TV, and in their following few days together, Michael finds himself _way_ too into Lifetime.

It’s like the more time they can spend together, alone, with some booze and TV the more they can forget about. Sure, Gavin might be out their dying somewhere and Ryan and Ray might never come back, but as long as they don’t actually talk about it, it’s fine. When Geoff tells stories, he never uses the term ‘angel’ in past tense. Michael thinks maybe that’s for the best.

Their self-made bubble of perfect serenity pops four days later when Ryan and Ray show up at the door, a coughing and barely conscious Gavin propped up between them. He looks up as Michael opens the door, and a broken bloody smile blossoms on his face.

“Michael…” he sighs, before his eyes roll back and his head lolls. His body hangs limp and lifeless between the two demons who betray him, as they drag him through the house and into Michael’s bed.

“I can’t believe you found him…” Michael says, as he watches from the doorway whilst Ryan cleans Gavin’s wounds.

“It was the least we could do.” Ray shrugs, turning to face Michael. For the first time in too long, Michael smiles at his best friend.

“He’s weak.” Geoff says, pulling the two from their moment. “I don’t know if it’s being attacked by angels or being away from Michael or both, but he’s running real low on power.” Geoff bends down beside the bed, watching Gavin intently with his hands clasped together. It's almost like a scene from an old painting hung up in a dusty museum. Geoff, knelt by the bed of the injured angel with his hands gripped tightly together like he was saying a prayer. Michael rubs his hands over his eyes and his face, willing the peaceful image away.

“You think angels did this?” Ryan asks. Geoff nods.

“Yeah,” he reaches forwards to turn Gavin’s head over and Michael's hand curls into a fist over his mouth. Along Gavin's neck is a long, bloody gash. The tissue around the wound has started to scab over, but it still looks too real, to painful. Geoff swallows thickly. “I know an angel’s handiwork when I see it.”

“Is he gonna be okay?” Michael asks. Ryan stands up, setting the first aid kit down on the bed. He pauses for a second, before hesitantly shrugging.

“Now that he’s here? Probably. But I don’t know how long it’s going to be until he gets caught by the angels again.”

“So what do we do to stop that from happening?” Ray asks. Ryan shrugs again.

“Honestly, I have no idea.” He admits. “As far as I can think, there is no long-term solution. Gavin is a fugitive, and Heaven will find him eventually.”

“You can’t do _anything_?” Michael yells. Everyone in the room flinches, except for Gavin who remains asleep. “I’m sorry.” He says, after a pause. “I just… we’re sitting fucking ducks until the next assholes come for him. I want to protect him… I just don’t know how.” Michael hangs his head, ashamed of himself. Gavin’s _his_ friend, and technically, Gavin’s only in this mess because of him.

“The more time you spend with him, the safer he’ll be, buddy.” Geoff says, walking over and patting Michael’s shoulder. “You stay in here with him tonight, Ryan, Ray and I will work on some stronger wards to keep the angels as far away as possible.”

“Fine, alright.” Michael nods. He lets Geoff squeeze his shoulder once more, before the angel turns and walks out the room. Ryan isn’t far behind him, lingering in the doorway for a second, before nodding at Michael and leaving.

That leaves Michael, Ray, and the snoring Gavin. Michael tries to forget that angel’s don’t need to sleep.

“I’m so sorry Michael.” Ray says, eyes never leaving Gavin’s body. “This is all our fault. We should’ve-”

“-It’s not your fault.” Michael sighs. “Seriously, Ray, I’m sorry for even being this pissed at you for so long. You were doing what you thought was right for you and the person you love. I can’t argue with that, because I’d do the same.” He isn’t sure why his eyes flit to Gavin when he says _love_. He decides not to question it.

“This sucks. Everything, Heaven, Hell… It’s all a load of horseshit and I’m sorry you have to be involved.” Ray says. Michael’s lip quirks in a smile.

“Dude, apparently I was born to be involved in this shit. So don’t be sorry, let’s just forget we ever argued and go back to being best friends, yeah?”

“Bros before hoes?” Ray jokes with a weak laugh, Michael smiles.

“If Ryan’s cool with being your ‘hoe’ I guess so.” He says, before reaching his hand out for Ray to shake. A gentleman’s agreement of sorts.

But Ray’s never been a gentleman, so he takes Michael’s hand and pulls him into a tight hug. “I’m sorry, again.”

“I’m sorry too.”

Ray steps back. “I’m gonna go help Ryan and Geoff out. You look after Gav, yeah?”

Michael nods. “I will.”

As Ray leaves the room, Michael’s eyes fall onto Gavin again. He walks over, circling the bed before sitting beside the sleeping angel, who stirs slightly as Michael’s weight shifts the bed. Slowly, Michael lays down so he is beside Gavin, their faces barely a foot away from each other.

Michael smiles, because Gavin looks pretty cute asleep.

As he does, Gavin stirs again, brow furrowing before his eyes blink open. “Michael?” he asks shakily, voice groggy. Michael reaches over, hand softly resting at the side of Gavin’s face.

“Sh, Gav, it’s okay. I’m here to look after you, boi.” He whispers. Gavin smiles at him.

“How’d we always end up here, Michael?” He asks through bleary eyes and a hoarse mutter. “I’m supposed to be the one who looks after you, aren’t I?”

Michael breathes out a quiet laugh, as his thumb strokes the dry skin of Gavin’s cheek. “It’s cool,” he whispers. “Sometimes we both need looking after.”

“I like you, Michael.” Gavin says sleepily, as his eyes droop close.

“I like you too, Gavin.” Michael replies.

"I..." Gavin takes a deep breath, his half-formed words barely a murmured wheeze. Michael leans closer to listen, reveling in the falling of Gavin's warm, metallic breath hitting his face. "I never used to know right from wrong." he says. "But... now, i think I might."

"Oh yeah?" Michael whispers. "What's that then?"

A soft smile curls over Gavin's lip, "This feels right." he says. "Being here, with you."

Gavin's eyes droop closed just in time to miss the blush on Michael's cheeks. He misses the feeling of Michael's hand, pushing his hair back from his face, kissing his forehead so gently. He misses Michael, whispering in his ear, "It feels right for me too, Gav. Now get some sleep. We can talk in the morning.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Late update, I know- oops!
> 
> Just a quick notice; obviously, school has started up for me and I don't have as much time for writing and things. So after the next chapter, which will be an ending of sorts, this story will go on hiatus for a few weeks. But not one of those, I'm-going-on-hiatus-for-the-foreseeable-future-because-i-don't-know-what-else-to-do kind of hiatuses. More of a time-to-write-part-two hiatus. It wont be as many chapters post-hiatus as it is now. Maybe four? Five at the most probably. So yeah, I'll be updating next week, and then taking a short break for a few weeks to write the rest. 
> 
> Liked this fic? Hey, leave Kudos maybe!  
> Already left Kudos? Seriously, dropping a comment would make my day! It doesn't have to be lengthy, or articulate. It doesn't even have to be more than a sentence, just a simple; 'Hey, this was cool!' or 'Yo, I liked this!' or even 'This was cool. But what about blah blah blah?'. I'll answer questions if I get them!
> 
> Also, HMU on tumblr PAPERSKIN.tumblr.com


	9. Mortality

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The next morning, Michael leaves Gavin snoring in his bedroom and walks into the main room. The apartment is empty, which is weird, because Michael’s been sharing his life with these people for so long, he’s forgotten what silence is like.
> 
> On the kitchen isle is a small note, reading: gone out for research and ingredient-collecting. Be back soon, Geoff, Ryan + Ray xo
> 
> He wonders which one of them left the note. He quickly decides that it was probably Ray, because Michael’s not sure he can imagine Geoff or Ryan leaving ‘xo’ at the end of a message. He flicks the coffee pot on and rubs his sleepy eyes. His stomach grumbles, so he shifts through the cupboards and pulls out a questionable looking packet of pop tarts. With a vague sniff, he decides they’re probably still in date and puts two in the toaster.

Chapter Nine // Mortality

 

 

 

The next morning, Michael leaves Gavin snoring in his bedroom and walks into the main room. The apartment is empty, which is weird, because Michael’s been sharing his life with these people for so long, he’s forgotten what silence is like.

On the kitchen isle is a small note, reading: _gone out for research and ingredient-collecting. Be back soon, Geoff, Ryan + Ray xo_

He wonders which one of them left the note. He quickly decides that it was probably Ray, because Michael’s not sure he can imagine Geoff or Ryan leaving ‘xo’ at the end of a message. He flicks the coffee pot on and rubs his sleepy eyes. His stomach grumbles, so he shifts through the cupboards and pulls out a questionable looking packet of pop tarts. With a vague sniff, he decides they’re _probably_ still in date and puts two in the toaster.

The coffee pot beeps and he’s pouring his cup when suddenly an agonising screech pierces his ears, clearly coming from the bedroom. The pot drops from his hands, hot coffee and plastic crashing to the floor, but he barely feels the burn against his skin as he sprints towards the bedroom.

Gavin is in the middle of the bed laid on his back with his shirt torn off and laid on the floor. His face screws up in pain, and every few seconds he lets out a high pitched shriek and arches up off the bed. Michael covers his ears, because the sounds from Gavin’s mouth are shockingly inhuman in the way they vibrate against his eardrums deafeningly.

“Gavin!” he shouts over the dreadful noise, moving towards the angel who can barely crack open his eyes to look at Michael’s face before pain rips through him again,

“Gavin!” Michael repeats. “What is it, what’s wrong?”

“My _wings_!” Gavin sobs, real human sobs that are noisy and desperate like a wounded animal. “Michael- they _hurt_!”

“I-I can’t see them, Gav- I can’t help you unless I can see them!” Michael panics, pulling Gavin by the hand to a sitting position. He scrambles to sit opposite him, holding Gavin’s face in his hands, wiping his dripping hair from his sweaty forehead.

“I’ll show you.” Gavin pants. Michael stills, because a tiny part of his brain reminds him what Gavin had said to him before. Wings are _private,_ right?

But it’s too late, because the all-too-familiar cry of _shut your eyes_ rings out from Gavin and a white, almost golden light fills the room. When it fades, Gavin seems to be in less in pain, but only slightly.

Michael hardly notices.

Gavin’s wings are huge, and they stretch from his back like a bird in flight. They’re almost completely brown, with white and gold tips to the individual feathers making them shimmer almost magically as they twitch. Michael instinctively reaches out to touch, before Gavin shakes his head.

“Michael, behind… they’re twisted I think? The feathers-“

Gavin stops as his body spasms in pain again, and Michael is yanked out from his state of amazement. He crawls behind Gavin, who bends forwards in an odd display of submission to show his wings to Michael. At the back of Gavin’s wings, towards the middle the feathers are askew and some look torn, twisted painfully so. Every time Gavin moves, a trickle of blood will roll out.

“Gav- they’re twisted here at the back,” he says, “That must be why they hurt so bad. Apart from that, they’re fine- you’re okay.” he says soothingly, and his palm lays flat at the gap of skin between Gavin’s wings in a way he hopes is comforting.

It must be, because Gavin controls his breathing, and nods. “You have to… I guess groom them? Wings heal pretty gradually anyway, but the feathers being twisted is what’s stopping them. Straighten them out, and I’ll be fine.” He pants.

Michael nods, and starts to smooth out Gavin’s wings. He doesn’t really have much idea what he’s doing at all, but Gavin’s stopped screaming and his wings have stopped twitching so he must be doing something right. Eventually, Gavin let’s out a happy sigh, and his wings flutter in a way that is beyond mesmerizing, glowing faintly in a way he assumes means they’re healing themselves. After that, Gavin sits up, and turns around to face Michael.

“Thank you, Michael!” He says, surprising Michael by pulling him into a tight hug. Michael hugs him back, but is careful where his hands sit in case he fucks up and bends Gavin’s giant wing or worse. When Gavin’s bare, hairy chest touches against his T-shirt, his heartbeat picks up so quickly, he worries he might actually be going into some kind of cardiac arrest.

Hugged by an angel doesn’t really sound like a bad way to go, though.

“You’re welcome Gav.” He says, burying his face in Gavin’s neck briefly, before the angel pulls way. “Your… wings- they’re really fucking nice, by the way.”

Gavin blushes, and Michael wonders how his heart hasn’t physically busted out of his chest cavity yet. He didn’t even know angels _could_ blush, and the way Gavin’s wings pull together, almost hiding from Michael’s eyes make it doubly endearing.

“Well… thanks.” Gavin says with a smile, when he does, his wings twitch upwards slightly like the corners of his mouth. “I…I wanted you to see them. I didn’t plan on it being like this though.”

“It’s fine, I’m just glad I could help you out.” Michael says. He pauses, and the room falls silent, Gavin’s eyes focused on his. Clearly, the angel doesn’t quite understand that continuous eye contact can make someone nervous, because he smiles the whole way through, unaware of Michael’s quickening pulse. Gavin relaxes, and his wings stretch back out a little as his stare turns from placid to confused.

“You can…” Gavin pauses, as if he’s carefully thinking over his next move. Michael’s never seen Gavin be nervous or unsure about anything. Gavin’s mind is black and white and this is the first hint of grey he’s ever seen from the angel. Gavin folds his arms across his chest. “You can touch them… if you want.”

Michael realises that throughout this whole debacle, he didn’t spent one second savouring the touch of Gavin’s feathers against his skin. He just worked quickly and desperately because Gavin being in pain was something he couldn’t bear for a single second longer.

“Can I?” he asks.

Gavin nods. Michael doesn’t bother hesitating any longer, and sticks his hands forwards, stroking across the inner feathers of Gavin’s wings. Gavin’s eyes flutter shut and he bites his lip, making no sounds, but looking like he wants to.

Michael strokes so gently, alternating between just the pads of his fingertips and the backs of his fingers, up from the narrow feathers closes to Gavin’s body to the bigger, broader feather at the edge. Gavin’s feathers are like silk beneath his touch and every stroke has him wanting more.

But he restrains himself. He pulls back, fingers aching and twitching to delve back in. Gavin opens his eyes, panting slightly.

“They’re beautiful.” Michael says. Before Gavin can say anything else, the loud beeping of the smoke detector pierces through the room.

“ _Shit!”_ Michael yells, scrambling to rush off the bed. “My _Pop Tarts!”_

* * *

 

It takes a day or two, but soon enough, Gavin is back on his feet. It’s strange to Michael, to see the once so powerful angel shuffle around his apartment in Michael’s T-shirt and Michael’s too-baggy sweatpants.

It’s a sight he could really get used to.

He’s unsure where the dynamic between he and Gavin is going but he knows he likes it. Those underlying feelings of more-than-friend-ness is still there, but the fact that Gavin’s _here_ and he’s _alive_ is enough for now. He and Gavin sleep in the same bed every night, and nobody questions it. From the moment the bedroom door shuts, Gavin will peel off his ( _Michael’s)_ T-shirt and stretch for a second, his wings will appear from nowhere giant and beautiful and absolutely terrifying.

He’s seen Gavin stretch them out too much and knock his alarm clock off his nightstand or make the light swing, and his face will take on the most adorable pinkish tone and he’ll apologise in this quiet little voice and Michael will grin, because it’s really the most magical thing he’s ever seen.

They slip into bed and Gavin’s wings will stretch when he’s laid on his side, one tucked at his back and the other stretched out, over Michael’s body. Gavin sheepishly explains to him the first time it happens that his wings kind of have a mind of their own and it’s a protective instinct. Michael just smiles and appreciates his feathery touch.

It’s only when Michael finds himself walking back to his car forty dollars poorer with matching minecraft necklaces in a paper bag that he realises maybe he’s in a little too deep. He starts to notice even the little things about himself and their situation, like the way Geoff smirks at him and the way the hairs stand up on the back of his neck when he sees Gavin leaning against Ryan on the couch or opposite Ray, battling him in a game or simply chatting about this whole other life they all shared together before Michael was even a part of their minds.

It makes him jealous, that suddenly Gavin wants to spend time with other people, and that’s _really_ fucked up.

Gavin’s his own person. Fuck that, he’s not even a person. He’s a god damn _angel_. It doesn’t matter how much tea he drinks, how he tears up at night sometimes because he doesn’t have enough power to fly anymore. How when he sleeps against Gavin’s furry chest at night he can feel the same sparks, just more muted.

He arrives back to the apartment where Geoff and Gavin are sat together under a blanket, watching Ryan and Ray battle on Halo. Gavin looks up when he walks into the house and beams at him, and Michael suddenly remembers that Gavin’s not just his favourite person.

He’s Gavin’s too.

“Michael! How was the con with Lindsay?” he asks brightly, too bright for the dark room with the heavy curtains Ray insists on closing to reduce glare on the TV screen.

“It was good thanks, I actually got you something.”

“Isn’t that just _adorable_.” Geoff teases. Ryan laughs, sipping from a can of Diet Coke. Even Ray sniggers quietly from his seat, taking himself out of the game for less than a second.

“Oi! Leave us alone.” Gavin says, but his grin is much too wide to be threatening. He gives Geoff a weak shove, the blanket slipping from their bodies and onto the floor as they wrestle playfully.

Eventually Geoff lets go of Gavin and he hops off the sofa, bounding towards Michael with a grin. He links his bony arm through Michael’s pale one, and drags him off towards his- _their_ bedroom.

“Well, I know that you’re really into Minecraft at the moment, so I saw this booth with like… minecraft themed stuff in it, right?” he explains awkwardly, as Gavin sits on his- _their_ bed excitedly with his crossed legs bouncing. Michael fumbles in his backpack for the striped paper bag where the jewellery is kept.

“Right?”

“So… I thought, like- you’re the creeper, and I’m the bear… and together, we’re like, Team Nice Dynamite, aren’t we?”

“Course we are!”

“So… So I got us these stupid overpriced matching necklaces, okay? It’s no big deal.” He practically tosses Gavin’s at him in a fit of embarrassment, his own clutched in his fist. He fumbles with is awkwardly as Gavin picks his own up and marvels at it, that he accidentally lets the pendant slip through his fist and hang at Gavin’s eye level.

The angel leans over to him, resting the _banjo kazooie_ charm in his hand, laying it next to the creeper. He looks up at Michael with eyes so wide and appreciating and borderline tearful, that it takes all of Michael’s self-restraint to not just grab him and kiss him right there.

“Oh… Michael, they’re _awesome_.” He says quietly, leaning up on his knees so the two are more level. He looks Michael directly in the eyes, and smiles. “Really, I love them. Thank you.”

Michael looks down at the pendants laid in Gavin’s hand, side by side. “I…Whatever. It was stupid but… I’m glad you like them.”

Gavin’s free hand rests on Michael’s face, and before he’s sure what’s happening, Gavin’s leaning up and brushing his lips against Michael’s cheek. It’s hardly a kiss, it’s hardly _anything_ , but for a second, Michael feels the same sparks against his skin he used to feel whenever Gavin touched him.

Gavin doesn’t say anything, just slips off the bed and lets Michael’s bear run off his palm leaving it to dangle from Michael’s fist. He makes his way over to the mirror on the wall and clips the necklace around his neck, smiling at where it sits at his chest. He places his hand over it, holding it close and takes one last look at Michael, eyes so full of fondness and gratitude that Michael feels like he’s about to pass out. Gavin doesn’t say anything, just leaves the room.

As the door clicks shut, Michael collapses backwards onto his bed, breathing deeply for a few seconds. He can’t even wrap his head around the emotions that swirl in his brain, but he doesn’t quite have the energy to do so. Gavin’s tender, barely-there kiss was too much for his body to handle. He isn’t sure how he’s ever going to find a kiss to compare it.

Perhaps he doesn’t want to.

* * *

 

He’s still an angel, so Gavin heals quickly. Within a week, he’s barely a shadow of the broken creature dragged to Michael’s door by the two very demons who had sworn they were enemies. One night, when Ryan and Ray drag him out for a night of friendship rebuilding, Geoff sits him down and explains that Heaven is where an angel’s power comes from, and the longer Gavin stays away, the weaker he’ll become.

Having Michael around helps, he says, because their natural connection feeds right into Gavin’s grace and is stored up over time until he needs it. Geoff describes it as a backup generator; when Gavin’s in trouble the reserve explodes in a short burst. But it’s not enough, not forever.

Michael starts to realise this when Gavin comes back. He doesn’t fly, not anymore. The damage done to his wings by the angel he’d fought before Ray and Ryan rescued him isn’t irreparable, but isn’t going to get much better the further away he stays from Heaven. He can still fight, and probably snap Michael’s arm like a twig, but he’s lost that slight edge of _authority_ that he once held. When Gavin stands, his hands are in the pockets of his borrowed sweatpants and his head hangs downwards. Michael remembers a time when Gavin could command an entire room with just a tilt of his head. The moments Gavin spent in his life before Geoff’s falling were like a beautiful symphony, with Gavin himself being the very crescendo.

 To Gavin, these are nothing but mere facts. Yeah, he’s not as powerful as he once was and he’s probably pretty high up on Heaven’s most wanted. He’d have a much safer life if he just detached himself from the hierarchy of Heaven permanently, slowly letting his grace fizzle out until he became a mortal.

He wonders what it would be like to be mortal. He asks Geoff how it feels to go from having so much power to having none, in less than a click of God’s fingers.

“I don’t know.” Geoff gives a vague shrug. He fails to hold eye contact with Gavin for more than a few seconds, uncomfortably squirming on Michael’s leather couch. “It’s weird. Yeah, some days I feel like shit. I fucking hate my life and everything about it, I hate shitting and showering and I hate Heaven and I hate God,” Geoff’s words are harsh and abrasive and Gavin almost flinches, even with Geoff’s apathetic tone. “But,” he continues, “It’s like… despite all those times I want nothing more than to be back up there, where I used to belong… for the first time, I feel pure.”

Gavin starts to wonder if it would really be so bad being a human after all.

He could have a normal life, like the humans he’s studied and witnessed on the earth for so long. A short, barely there cycle of eighty or so years means so much too every person whereas in the grander scheme it is barely a blip in the cycle. Gavin had always wondered why humans couldn’t realise that, but slowly, he was starting to understand. For humans, eighty years was enough time to create their own forever.

He could imagine himself having a human forever. Michael would be there, he’s sure of that. No matter what the circumstances, he’d find Michael somehow. Maybe they’d be friends. Maybe they’d be more than that. Gavin isn’t really sure how human’s progress from friends to ‘couples’ like he’s seen on television, but it looks very stressful and confusing and he isn’t sure he’d want to put Michael through that. He likes what they have, the bond they share. He likes sleeping in Michael’s bed with his wings curled around them both. He wouldn’t be able to do that if he was mortal, but Michael’s arms are soft and firm and would probably feel nice wrapped around him the way he’s seen other humans do.

But Michael doesn’t need a human. If in Heaven’s minds he’s an abomination, it’s not long until they give up going after Gavin and remove him from the equation instead. Gavin knows this, because despite what some people think he isn’t actually an idiot. If Gavin can’t protect him, Michael is a dead man walking.

Michael doesn’t need a human. Michael needs an _angel_ , and if Gavin wants to even come close to being that again, he knows what he has to do.

“I’m going to find God.” He announces to the small audience of Ryan, Ray, Geoff and Michael.

Geoff actually laughs in his face, the others give him sympathetic, doubtful looks. Gavin frowns.

“What?”

“You’re just going to find him? Just like that?” Ryan asks. “Gavin. God’s been… M.I.A I guess, for hundreds of years. You think it’s gonna be as easy as looking?”

Gavin sighs, sitting back in the armchair Geoff forced Ryan to buy for him. “I know it sounds stupid… but… I have to try, okay? If I’m ever going to become an angel again, I have to try.”

Geoff stops laughing and Ryan sits backwards. Ray looks at Ryan and Michael looks at Gavin.

“How are you gonna do it?” Ray asks.

“I dunno.” Gavin shrugs. “I guess I’ll start here. Earth is God’s best creation after all. There’s bound to be somewhere he could be hiding, I’ll just have to travel! Think of all those amazing sacred places in the world, there’s got to be answers there!”

“You could try India.” Ryan offers, and Gavin can see the spark forming behind his eyes. He’s warming to the idea, as he sits up with his arms rested on his knees. “Head to the Golden Temple, or the River Ganges or-”

“-isn’t that like the wrong religion?” Michael asks. Every pair of eyes in the room swivel to him. Ray scoffs at him, and Michael frowns.

“What? Aren’t you guy’s proof that Christianity is actually the right one?”

Geoff smiled. “You idiot. All religion… it’s all different ways of telling the same story. None of them are right or wrong about what’s happened. They all just chose what they want to miss out.”

“Oh.” Michael sits back. “Really? So all these stupid fucking wars over what people believe in… they’re fighting for the same God-damn thing?”

“Humans.” Ryan shrugs. “You just _love_ a good reason to kill each other.”

“It’s true.” Gavin nods. “Just means I’ve got a much bigger scale to search on. Every continent, almost every country really has their own sacred places. It’ll take a lot of travelling to look through them all, but it has to be done.”

“What you’re just gonna up and leave, just like that?” Michael asks. Gavin nods.

“But- but I thought you were safer if you stayed with me?” Michael yells. He’s suddenly falling into defence mode, as Gavin has seen him do many times before. As soon as even the idea of Gavin or any of them getting hurt comes to mind, Michael hides his fear behind irrational anger. Gavin isn’t sure if it’s one of the things he hates about Michael, or one he loves the most.

“What happened to laying low? Last time you went off on your own you were dragged back here bleeding to fucking death!”

“I have to do it Michael! I just have to, alright?” Gavin shouts, voice raising to power over Michael’s. Michael freezes as Gavin raises his voice at him, back stiffening.

“Gavin…” he instantly softens, and Gavin fights off a smile. Michael’s a big softy really. “I just don’t want you to get hurt.”

Geoff has been silent up to this point of the conversation, quietly watching the ideas building in Gavin’s head and the fears multiplying in Michael’s. He sits up, clearing his throat a little to gain the others attention.

“I’ll do it,” he says.

“Do what?” Ray asks.

“Go with him. I’ll go with Gavin to help him find God.”

Gavin’s eyes light up. “Really?” he asks. Geoff’s mouth curls into a smirk, and he shrugs, as if he’s simply agreeing to take the kid out to eat.

“Sure.” He says. “Why not. I’ve got a few things I want to tell him myself.”

There is a pause, as Gavin grins as Geoff and Geoff smiles back at Gavin. Michael quietly stews in his own anger and the silence becomes tense.

Ryan breaks it.

“Well… I may or may not have found a cheat-y little way of keeping you a lot more… camouflaged from the angels.” He says. Gavin’s head snaps around to face the demon.

“What? And you’re just telling me now!”

“I didn’t think you were ready to leave-“ Ryan throws

his hands up defensively, Ray turning to glare at him. “But if you’re serious about this, I’ll help you out. It’s the least I can do.”

Gavin smiles. “Thanks Ryan.”

“Fuck it, if Ryan’s in… I guess why the fuck not?” Ray offers flippantly, shrugging. Gavin knows the gesture of Ray’s willingness to help means so much more than that, but he won’t point it out. Ray’s done a good job over the years of learning how to mask his emotions, and Gavin understands why. “I guess we’ve already helped up the God squad enough, so why stop now?”

Michael sighs. He looks around the room, at his two best friends, his newly human roommate and finally, his eyes settle on Gavin. The angel who changed his life. His guardian angel in the borrowed skin of a British guy named Gavin Free. Gavin Free, whose face he knows he’ll see behind his eyelids every night as he goes to sleep for the rest of his life.

“It’s futile Gavin. You must know that.” He says in a last ditch attempt to de-rail their plan. Gavin doesn’t say anything, but he nods his head. Michael knows what he means, and he doesn’t need to be a reader like Jack to figure out that it means a lot more than that. Gavin may be Heaven’s most wanted, but he’s also probably Heaven’s most dedicated, perfect little soldier. He’s been screwed over by God, or who the fuck ever else is running shit, and he still wants to help- still wants to discover the truth.

And Michael loves him. Oh _God_ does he love him.

“Are you in or not Michael?” Ray asks. Michael sighs, he looks at his feet and turns his head slightly, before looking back up to Gavin.

“Alright.” He says. “I’m in.”

 

 

_end of Part One_

 

-fin-

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Alas! This is it, The End...
> 
> Sort of. This is the end of Part One at least. It wasn't my original intention to split this fic in 2 but then, I was expecting to finish actually writing it by the end of summer. lmao, that didn't quite happen.
> 
> With school work I can't pump out and edit a full chapter and keep to my update schedule, so this fic has been split in two. This is where Part One ends, but not where Gavin and Michael's story ends. I'll probably start uploading Part Two in a few weeks or so.
> 
> Stuff to look forwards too in Searching for Salvation in a Secular Age, Part Two:
> 
> Plan G search for God!  
> More Raywood!  
> More Michael/Ray brOTP  
> MAAAAAVVVVIIIIIIIINNNNN  
> Meg Turney!  
> Lindsay Tuggey/Jones!!!  
> Even a tiny smidge of turnwood? That's right! It's happening!  
> (It's sort of happening. This fic is strictly Raywood, but Meg's gonna come in and things are gonna get real interesting. I would go into detail, but, you know... spoilers and everything)
> 
> And hey! If you liked this mid-season finale of sorts, leave some Kudos, friend! Already left Kudos? A comment would really be appreciated. I reply to comments I really love, and I'll reply to any questions! Also, you can leave questions in my tumblr askbox! 
> 
> Love 2 u all <3
> 
> Thanks.


	10. a/n (no this isn't being cancelled don't worry)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> news!

yo so I know I said this was going on a brief hiatus and then continuing 

 

brief turned into not-so-brief but now I can confirm that I'll probably upload the next chapter to this story sometime this weekend/next week!!!

 

the story goes about 16(?i think) chapters and I've written up to like halfway through 14. There's a LOT of shit that goes down, tons of mavin, angsty raywood, brOTP Geovin and even a dash of turnwood ( _sort of. no spoilers, but if you're **not** a fan of turnwood/romantic turnwood you have absoloutley nothing to worry about this is a raywood fic) _

 

So yeah, just Incase you thought I'd forgotten all about poor little Guardian Michael, I haven't!

 

Now would be a good time to read (or re-read)  this and familiarise yourself with the story before it starts up again. Comments as always are still appreciated even on older chapters because they let me know that people like the story and encourage me to focus on it so much more than kudos (although kudos is still mucho appreciated)

 

to recap; this story is not dead, the mavin is oncoming and you will hear from this universe once again in a matter of days!


	11. Back To Reality

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Getting back to a somewhat normal life takes longer than Michael initially expects it too.
> 
> His old job is beyond unreachable, one angry over-weight man that used to be his manager physically blocking his cell phone number and sending another equally angry over-weight man around to collect his company mandated tools and uniform is a clear enough message. If Michael were any other guy then getting another electric job in the entire town would impossible.
> 
> But then, any other guy wouldn’t have two demons on his side. Ryan’s magic fascinates him, and he’s starting to figure out how the asshole passed all of his college classes without studying. Ryan somehow, miraculously, finds him another job of similar pay, with more flexible hours. He starts off at just one day a week, but as the weeks without Gavin go on and his boredom grows, he ups the anti, little by little.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> It's back! Weekly schedule as usual, updating every tuesday. There's five chapters left of this story! Enjoy, and let me know what you thought via the comments!

_ PART DUEX _

 

 

 

 

** Chapter Ten // Back to Reality **

 

 

 

 

Getting back to a somewhat normal life takes longer than Michael initially expects it too.

His old job is beyond unreachable, one angry over-weight man that used to be his manager physically blocking his cell phone number and sending another equally angry over-weight man around to collect his company mandated tools and uniform is a clear enough message. If Michael were any other guy then getting another electric job in the entire town would impossible.

But then, any other guy wouldn’t have two demons on his side. Ryan’s magic fascinates him, and he’s starting to figure out how the asshole passed all of his college classes without studying. Ryan somehow, _miraculously,_ finds him another job of similar pay, with more flexible hours. He starts off at just one day a week, but as the weeks without Gavin go on and his boredom grows, he ups the anti, little by little.

It’s oddly therapeutic. Michael changes fuses and fixes circuits and security systems and tinkers with breakers and sometimes, he even installs _cable_. He’s not quite reached the rank of jack-of-all-trades but this new place teaches him a lot in small doses. It’s probably the most effective sector of the American educational system he’s ever experienced.

He realises he’s probably in way too deep when he starts looking at community college classes in advanced electrical engineering and has to give himself a reality check. He’s not going to be an electrician for the rest of his life, and God help him if he ends up as one. The dream job for Michael, formed long before Gavin crashed into his life was gaming. His few slapdash shaky-footage _Rage Quit_ videos got a fair buzz on youtube but after being held back for obvious reasons, his channel sits collecting dust in the bookmarked row of his chrome browser.

Ray tells him to fuck his real job and start making videos again, but aside from _Rage Quit_ the only fun videos he can even think of all revolve around one thing that he doesn’t have.

 

_Gavin_

 

He could have a face-cam on Gavin playing slender co-op with him. They could film their D grade heart-transplant in Surgeon Simulator, they could play against each other in Halo. The others could sit in on their games too, rounds and rounds of Ray destroying them all at call-of-duty and Geoff and Ryan thinking up wacky tasks and challenges in Grand Theft Auto. That, plus the staggering Minecraft world Geoff and Gavin have been working on for the last few months could feature heavily.

 _Achievement City,_ Gavin had said it was called. Michael wonders if they could use that, and make a name for themselves, as a group. _Achievement_ … he thinks. What could possibly go well with Achievement?

Michael’s chain of though is interrupted by his phone ringing. Gavin’s photo fills the whole screen along with the fitting title of _My boi!_ That he’d forced Michael to set sort-of not really against his will.

Michael can’t help but smile as he answers the phone. “Hey, Gav.”

 

“Hi Michael!”

 

Gavin always sounds so cheerful when he calls. Michael isn’t sure how nor why throughout this whole borderline traumatising situation that the angel’s life has erupted into, he stays so positive. Anyone else would probably think that Gavin was just a happy guy taking some time out of school to travel the world with his older friend, not a slowly fading angel in search for God with his newly human ex-brother.

 

“Yeah, and then we found this bloke, right- apparently Geoff had seen some video of him online giving head massages! It was so cool, my whole forehead was just tingling, it was crazy! You humans never fail to impress me with your weird…treatments.”

 

“No way,” Michael hasn’t really been listening much to Gavin’s elaborate story about a suspicious-sounding head masseuse in India, but more so just enjoying the excited tone of Gavin’s voice. The Angel can’t call every day, despite how much he wants to because amidst the head massages and bar crawls he and Geoff are still actively searching for their father. It doesn’t matter that it has been over three months, eight countries, and they still hadn’t found anything. As far as Gavin was concerned, that was six down and one hundred and eighty-eight more to go.

He and Gavin talk for the best part of an hour, about India and the weather and Michael’s job back home. Gavin talks about the River Ganges and how one day he wants to take Michael there. He talks about the overwhelming sense of human _togetherness_ that never made it into his so-called ‘family’. Michael talks about college and Gavin encourages him to go, but then Michael talks about _Rage Quit_ and Gavin insists he drop everything and start working on his dream.

 

Michael sighs. “I don’t know Gav, it’s not really my main focus at the moment. I just want to wait until all this is sorted out and you and Geoff are back home where you belong.”

He doesn’t even think much about what he’s just said, but clearly, Gavin does. It’s one of his more _quirky_ personality traits that he apparently inherited from the real Gavin Free. Gavin Free over thinks _everything_ and shares too much.

 

“Home?” he asks. “I wonder where that is for me anymore. Down here or back up in Heaven…”

 

Michael’s hand tightens into a fist for a second, but after a deep breath, it relaxes. He doesn’t like to think of Gavin leaving for anywhere, let alone the whole other world that existed above them.

 

“I don’t know either Gav. We’ll find out soon enough.”

 

“Alright Michael.” Like a light switch, Gavin flips from doubting to cheerful in less than a second. “Well, I’ll give you a ring in a few days. Geoff and I miss you and everyone else loads.”

 

“Come home soon.” Michael says. He can almost envision Gavin smirking and shaking his head on the other side of the world.

 

“I wish if we could boi, but I’m not sure yet. I’ll talk to you soon.”

 

“Bye Gavin.” The phone beeps, once long and low before falling silent. Michael tosses it beside him on the couch and sighs deeply, leaning back into his couch. _I Love You_ lingers on his tongue.

 

“Nice phone call with your boyfriend?”

 

Michael turns behind him to glare at Ray, who has just walked into the apartment hand in hand with Ryan. He isn’t sure when he started calling it _the_ apartment instead of his, but that it was sometime between Gavin and Geoff leaving and Ray and Ryan sleeping cuddled together on his couch.

 

“Yes, the call was nice, no Gavin is not my boyfriend.” Michael replies, as he has done many times before. He knows it’s all in fun, and Ray loves to tease him because they’re best friends and that’s what best friends do. Usually, Ryan is the one quick to pitch in with a witty comment or a joke, but on this particular occasion, he stays quiet.

 

“Geoff called Ryan.” Ray says. He walks further into the apartment but Ryan doesn’t follow him. The demon’s hand falls limply at his side and Ray’s face falls, but Michael chooses not to react to it. Ryan and Ray are weird, frightening and powerful. Whatever’s going on with them, he doesn’t want to end up on the bad side of it.

Plus, they’re Ryan-and-Ray. They always sort things out in the end.

 

“Really?” Michael asks instead, eyeing Ryan suspiciously. The demon has been silent from the moment they walked in, eyes fixed on the open window and apparently lost in thought. He looks to Michael.

 

“Hm?”

 

“Geoff?”

 

“Oh.” Ryan shrugs. “He was just filling me in. He says that Gavin’s doing okay but…he’s still losing power. He’s getting weaker by the day.”

 

Michael sighs and Ray folds his arms. “What about the necklaces?”

 

Ryan looks over to Ray. “I said they’d work, not that they’d work miracles. They’re not going to last him forever.”

 

Michael’s hand goes up to Gavin’s creeper pendant, which hangs at his chest. Just another one of Ryan’s party tricks, a psychic field that links the two together. Michael’s power is what keeps Gavin alive, Ryan just found a way to make that mobile. By storing Michael’s power in his _banjo kazooie_ necklace and giving it to Gavin, the two can remain connected no matter where they are.

Sure, it has its side effects. Michael will wake up in the middle of the night, shaken from one of Gavin’s nightmares. He can never completely recall them afterwards, only vague details about his wings being torn or Geoff falling from the sky. There is, however, one reoccurring factor in each terror that Michael can’t forget.

It’s _him_.

In every one of Gavin’s nightmares that he sees, Michael is the one who gets hurt the most. It’s always Michael dying or Michael being held captive by nameless angels or worse. Michael isn’t sure if he should be flattered or worried.

Sometimes during the day he can feel Gavin’s emotions. Fear, anxiety, happiness and guilt can strike him at any moment in the day without warning. Ray tells him that angels aren’t supposed to feel emotions like that and Michael suddenly feels sick.

After a stilted conversation Ryan leaves the apartment without much more than a disinterested wave. Michael understands that Ryan’s been doing a lot to help Gavin and Geoff, and that he’s constantly mixing potions and working on spells to make all their lives a little easier, but something doesn’t seem right when his excuse is a muttered ‘research’ and he walks quickly and with purpose, faced in the opposite direction from the stairs that will take him back to his and Ray’s apartment.

When Michael looks to Ray, the demon looks wilted. Ray’s latest defence mechanism is letting his eyes turn completely black whenever he’s worried that someone can look at him and read what he’s feeling. He moves to curl up in the armchair alone, Ryan’s big grey hoodie Michael hadn’t even realised he was wearing wrapped around his slight figure.

 

“What was that about?” Michael asks, because that’s what best friends do- demon or not. He doesn’t exactly expect much of a response from Ray, because he’s always been a pretty private guy and even more than that, he’s always been the type to pretend like he doesn’t feel anything at all.

 

Michael doesn’t expect Ray to sigh deeply and rub at his cold black eyes, blinking away the tears until they turn back to their familiar shade of brown.

 

“He’s been acting… off.”

 

Michael frowns. “What do you mean, off?”

 

Ray shrugs. “He just… he’s working on something, but he won’t tell me what. He’s constantly quiet and he won’t talk to me or answer hardly anything I actually ask him.” He sniffs, because Ray hates it when people watch him cry. He wipes the few escaped tears off the soft round of his cheeks with the edge of Ryan’s hoodie. “Whatever, forget I said anything.”

 

“No,” Michael sits forwards. This is the most Ray has opened up to him probably since the day he confided in Michael that he actually liked Ryan, past the not-so-casual sex they were having at the time. “Tell me how you feel.”

 

Ray looks to Michael, and gives him a weak smile. “You really wanna sit here and listen whilst I act like a fourteen year old on her period?”

 

“Yes.” Michael laughs. “That’s exactly what I want.”

 

Ray sniffs again. “Honestly… I think he’s getting sick of me Michael. We’ve been together for what, two years? It might not be that long for humans but demons? We don’t usually stick in pairs for longer than a few months. Despite our… apparent similarities, demons don’t usually tend to see eye-to-eye on much. Ryan was the first one who actually… _got me_ , and saw Hell the way I saw it. But now it’s like… in the past week or so he doesn’t even want to talk to me. He’s probably waiting for his chance to dump me.”

 

“Wait, a _week?_ ”

 

Ray looks up from his sad stare directed at the now damp sleeves of Ryan’s hoodie. “Yeah, what’s your point?”

 

“Dude. Ryan’s been weird for a _week_ … maybe he just got his fucking demon period or something- I don’t know.” Michael laughs. “That is not a long enough time for something to actually be up. He’s probably just upset about something stupid, and he’ll be over it by Thursday, so quit freaking out. Ryan’s crazy about you, anyone with eyes can see that.”

 

“You think so?”

 

Michael grins. “I know so. So can we ditch fourteen year old girl Ray now and move back to achievement hunting, quesadilla eating Ray?”

 

“Dude, that’s ageist, sexist, racist and just downright stereotypical.” Ray deadpans. Barely a few seconds pass before his mouth splits into a grin.

 

“That’s what I was waiting for.” Michael laughs, reaching forwards to the coffee table and picking up his controller. “Go and put Ghosts in, maybe that’ll cheer you up.”


	12. Familiar Faces

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> How they get to the topic of Gavin, Michael doesn’t know. Ray keeps giving him knowing looks that he doesn’t understand and suddenly they’re talking about Heaven’s least favourite missing angel. Michael’s gushing about everything, Gavin’s stupid British lingo and the games he likes and his wings-
> 
> “Wait, he showed you his fucking wings? Holy shit dude, that’s huge!”
> 
> Michael blushes. He’s not an idiot- he knows seeing Gavin’s wings is a huge deal for the both of them. It’s more than likely that Gavin’s wings have never been seen by another human in history. He ashamedly enjoys the exclusivity.

** Chapter Twelve // Familiar Faces **

 

 

How they get to the topic of Gavin, Michael doesn’t know. Ray keeps giving him knowing looks that he doesn’t understand and suddenly they’re talking about Heaven’s least favourite missing angel. Michael’s gushing about _everything_ , Gavin’s stupid British lingo and the games he likes and his wings-

“Wait, he showed you his fucking wings? Holy shit dude, that’s _huge!_ ”

Michael blushes. He’s not an idiot- he knows seeing Gavin’s wings _is_ a huge deal for the both of them. It’s more than likely that Gavin’s wings have never been seen by another human in history. He ashamedly enjoys the exclusivity.

The conversation shifts to his worry of Gavin’s dwindling power, and that’s when Ray’s expression falls. Gavin’s _his_ friend too, Michael keeps forgetting this fact. He needs the full story of the groups origin, but thinks that it’ll be best to wait for Gavin to be back with them first, to get all his little interjections and his arguments and protestations.

Ray shakes his head when Michael talks about Gavin wanting to stay searching and Geoff’s constant worry.

“All this God stuff,” he sighs. “It’s only gonna end in tears Michael, you know that. He’s just gonna get hurt.”

Michael knows this already. Ray knows, Ryan knows, Geoff knows. Gavin doesn’t know yet, and that’s the part that hurts Michael the most. Gavin’s still hovering in the air on his magic carpet, searching for the golden fucking tomb that holds the worlds secrets and will _fix everything_. He’s like a kid who still believes in Santa Clause- and it’s coming round to December.

Michael thinks this over when he sits in the bar, Lindsay on his left, four empty glasses between them. He doesn’t even feel near buzzed- he hasn’t in a long time. He thinks it might have something to do with the necklaces and the link between himself and Gavin’s grace that dulls the effects.

It sucks, but he puts on a good show because Lindsay is tipsy- pale cheeks ruddy and smile wide. She listens so intently when he talks about Ray and Ryan (with the major detail of them being fucking _demons_ carefully avoided) and nods in all the right places because she doesn’t know what to say. Lindsay’s a good friend like that.

“I just… I don’t know what to do Linds,” he admits. “Ray is so fucking upset, moping around my apartment like a little fucking… _ghost_. This shit with Ryan is killing him.”

“You know what you need to do,” Lindsay tells him matter-of-factly. “You need to speak to Ryan and try and get something out of him. Ryan acts pretty scary but we both know he’s a giant softy and he’ll crumble if you threaten to clear his saves.” She laughs. Michael laughs too, even though he can’t even imagine threatening Ryan now he knows the demon could crush his skull with his bare hands.

It kills him, not being able to gush about Gavin and get Lindsay’s wise take on his predicament. He’d considered different ways to talk around the whole _angel_ thing but come to the point each time where some parts of the story are just too unexplainable without it. He can’t talk around Gavin like he can Ryan and Ray. It’s impossible- the idiot is too complicated and endearing and clueless to be anything other than _not human_.

Lindsay stumbles out of the bar and into an Uber an hour later, but Michael opts to walk home. The cool air in the Austin night is refreshing on his face and when his phone rings (loud ACDC, earning him a few strange looks on the street) he answers immediately.

“Hey Geoff.”

“Hey Michael.” Geoff’s voice is quiet, almost a complete whisper. Michael sighs.

“Gavin sleeping again?” he asks, sadly.

“Yeah. He’s getting like… seven hours a day now dude. It’s not good, and I think he’s starting to realise it’s not good.” Geoff sounds tired, but that’s nothing new. The day Gavin calls him with the same tone of voice is the day he gets on a plane to India or China or wherever the fuck they are and drags the angel out by the tip of his ears.

“How’s things with you though?” Geoff asks.

“I’m just hanging out with Ray a lot. He’s pissed with Ryan.”

“Pissed with Ryan?” Geoff asks. “Why?”

“He’s being a mysterious fuck, why’d you think? Disappearing for days on end, shit like that. General Ryan stuff.”

“Oh… yeah, the asshole does that. You should fucking spy on him or something, find out what he’s doing- because trust me, Ryan’ll _never_ tell you.”

“You think?” he asks. “How would I do that though? Dudes about as transparent as a shadow.”

“I can text you over a couple incantations you can cook up at home- little eye of the beholder, for lack of a better translatable term.”

“Yeah, dude- that would be really cool. I’ll check it out.” Michael lets himself into the building, jogging past the condemned elevator and up the stairs. “Hey uh- tell Gav I said Hi. Get him to call me, when he can.”

Michael can practically hear the smirk in Geoff’s tone. “I will buddy. Talk to you later.”


	13. Infidel

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Choosing to cast the spell behind Ray’s back is a dangerous game and has Michael’s heart beating at what can’t possibly be a healthy rate as he stirs the ingredients around the wooden bowl. Dust and salts and a little bit of blood mix in the air like smoke, making him cough violently.
> 
> Ray’s not in the apartment, thankfully- he’d gone to blow off steam around an hour ago in an abandoned car lot. Apparently, Ray likes to blow off steam by punching cars and crumpling them with his tiny fists. Michael doesn’t ask many more questions after that.

** Chapter Thirteen: Infidel **

 

 

Choosing to cast the spell behind Ray’s back is a dangerous game and has Michael’s heart beating at what can’t possibly be a healthy rate as he stirs the ingredients around the wooden bowl. Dust and salts and a little bit of blood mix in the air like smoke, making him cough violently.

Ray’s not in the apartment, thankfully- he’d gone to blow off steam around an hour ago in an abandoned car lot. Apparently, Ray likes to blow off steam by punching cars and crumpling them with his tiny fists. Michael doesn’t ask many more questions after that.

The Latin mutterings creeping out from between his lips are what really set the smoke off, the dull white slowly evolving into a pale blue. It itches at his face, rubbing itself over his lips and across the bridge of his nose before settling in his eyes. Geoff had warned him that he might feel a slight itch- but _fuck_ , the urge to claw out his own eyes with his blunt fingernails is starting to become a little overwhelming.

Suddenly, Michael feels his knees buckle and he falls to the floor of his kitchen, eyes lighting up and casted to the ceiling. He barely manages to force out the whispered _Ryan_ \- the spells kicker, before passing out, head hitting the linoleum flooring with a _thud_.

 

* * *

 

When he opens them again, he is immediately aware that he is not in his own body. Firstly, he’s nowhere near this _strong_ , and secondly, his hands are moving around on their own accord. He catches his reflection in the streaky windshield of a car and actually gasps. His body- or actually, Ryan’s body, doesn’t repeat the reaction, and instead carries on speaking. The spell has apparently worked because this was certainly Ryan, the clock on the car radio reads _11:02_ , five minutes after he’d started the spell.

Michael feels Ryan’s head being turned to the left, eyes settling on a girl who sits beside him. A girl Michael has never seen before. Her eyes are brown but bright behind thick rimmed black glasses, her hair is a vibrant shade of purple. Her skin is creamy and soft looking, smile white and straight, expression slightly flustered, but interesting. Her cheeks are tinged with a light blush- blush directed at Ryan.

A sinking feeling settles in Michael’s- or technically, Ryan’s gut.

He doesn’t know this girl at all- but he knows girls like her and he knows how they work. Purple-hair is the kind of girl who can easily command attention in a room. The kind of beautiful girls who guys will always try and change for. The kind of girl who holds the power to _make_ guys change for her.

Ryan wouldn’t cheat- he wouldn’t ever be a cheater. But, girl’s like purple-hair are seasoned at making guys like Ryan change their values.

She’s talking now, but everything is muted. Geoff _had_ mentioned it was a sight spell, so Michael isn’t too surprised, just annoyed and conflicted and over all- worried at how the fuck he’s supposed to break the news to Ray. The girl is still speaking throughout his internal debate and Michael can feel Ryan’s lips raise into a smile. He hasn’t seen Ryan smile like that in _weeks._

Slowly, the vision clouds and when Michael opens his eyes purple-hair is gone, Ryan is no longer him, and he is laid on the floor of his kitchen with a very confused, very worried pair of chocolate brown eyes hovering above him.

“Dude? Are you okay?” Ray asks, voice laced with genuine concern. Michael swears internally, rubbing at a freshly bruised spot on his head. Of all the people to find him, it had to be Ray. Ray, who he’s still figuring out how to explain the reality of Ryan’s odd behaviour too.

“Uh, yeah dude.” Michael says quickly, dusting himself off and bouncing up on his feet once he realises he’d been silently considering his options for far too long. Ray is anxiously looking between him and the bowl of ingredients he’d used for the spell, eyes flying between the two like a professor trying to suss out a tricky equation. “Just uh,” he gestures to the bowl awkwardly, “Spells. Just dumb… spells Geoff’s been having me try out, try and… strengthen mine and Gav’s connection. No biggie, I probably just over did it.” He shrugs, quickly reaching for the bowl and dumping the contents in the kitchen bin before Ray can ask any questions about it.

“Oh right.” Ray says, he doesn’t sound too convinced, but doesn’t sound entirely focused either. When he’d left that morning for his car lot of self-expression, he’d seemed fiery. A little angry, tiny balled fists by his sides and feet itching to run. Now, he looks a little more wilted, a little more tired and quiet.

“What’s up with you, dude?” Michael asks, hand settling heavily at Ray’s shoulders. The demon, as usual, fails to meet his eyes.

“Nothing. I just got a text from Ryan.”

Michael tenses, a sudden overwhelming urge to protect his best friend from the asshole who could possibly be cheating coming over him. “Saying what?” he asks.

“Saying he was coming home tomorrow but he’s still acting weird and when I called and asked him where he was, he just shuts off the fucking phone. Fucking hangs up on me, like who does that?”

It’s meant to come across unbothered, unphased, blasé at least- but Michael can hear the emotion building in his friend’s voice before Ray himself can catch it, eyes quickly flashing to black to (probably) mask the tears. He’s got to fucking tell him- Ray’s his best friend. He deserves to know the truth.

“-So yeah, I’m probably gonna try and track his scent tonight, stalk him a little.”

“I saw him.” Michael blurts out, the most ungraceful display of sincerity he’s ever shown. He curses, and Ray’s unreadable eyes widen. “Saw him?” he asks. “Where?”

“I used a spell,” Michael gestures to the bin, “Geoff gave me a spell. To see through his eyes and shit- ‘cause I was worried about you man. I wanted to know what Ryan was doing so maybe I could fix it but… now I’m not so sure-”

“Not so sure?” Ray frowns. “Why? What’d you see?”

“Ray, I-”

“What’d you see, Michael?!” Ray demands, voice shrill and filled with panic. Michael sighs, rubbing at his forehead and anxiously tugging at the curls cut short around his hairline.

“I saw Ryan, in a car with… some _girl_.” He eventually says quietly. Ray’s body stiffens and Michael winces. “I’m not saying-”

“He’s fucking cheating on me?” Ray asks, and god-damn it if it isn’t the most heart-breaking expression Michael’s ever laid eyes on. His stomach bottoms out right there, and no power on earth can stop him from lurching forwards, encasing his best friend in a tight bear-hug.

“It didn’t- there wasn’t anything to definitely suggest that but…” he trails off, rubbing at the back of Ray’s head gently as he hears the demon sniff. “…I don’t know. They looked close. All I can say is that they looked fucking close.”

“So… so you didn’t see him actually _with her_?” Ray asks, pulling away from the hug as he wipes the bottoms of his dark eyes quickly. Michael shakes his head and Ray tries to regain his breath, folding his arms across his chest.

“Then… then I can’t believe he’s cheating on me.” He says. “It’s… it’s probably something different.”

Michael’s demeanour shifts from sympathetic to incredulous in the blink of Ray’s black eyes. Was the dude fuckign _crazy?_ Michael had seen him- it didn’t matter what he’d seen, he’d seen enough and all the signs were pointing in the worst possible direction. And there was Ray, leant up against his kitchen counter with his arms folded across his chest and his face sullen, somehow supporting the mere chance of Ryan’s fidelity.

“Dude- but how do you know?” he asks. Ray avoids his eyes and shrugs his shoulders.

“I just… I just do, okay? Ryan wouldn’t do that to me… I can’t believe that he would ever…” he trails off, shaking his head as the words escape him. “Not without proof. He just wouldn’t.” He finishes.

Michael sighs, but it’s more out of frustration and anger. What can he do, anyway? Force his best friend to believe his partner is hooking up with someone else behind his back? What good is that going to do for anyone- especially if it turns out not to be true at all?

Besides, Michael has known Ryan for a good few years. Honestly, he doesn’t seem the type to cheat. When he looks at Ray, it’s like he’s staring at his own demonic miracle of divine proportions.

Ryan looks at Ray with the intensity that Michael feels for Gavin.

 

* * *

 

“Hi Michael.” Gavin’s voice is soft and quiet over the phone. Michael wonders if that’s Gavin’s sleepy voice. The thought both unnerves him and makes him feel warm inside when the image of Gavin, laid out in bed at eight o’clock on a Monday morning, voice gravelly and whispery enters his head. _Hi Michael_ , he’d say. _Good morning Michael._

“Hey Gav!” Michael tries to stay chipper over the phone- he isn’t sure if it’s more for Gavin’s sake or for his but it makes him feel just that little bit better. “You doing okay?”

“Yeah,” Gavin says. “I was just… talking to Geoff. I think we’re gonna be heading home soon.”

Michael’s heart stops. The words he’d been waiting all this time to hear, finally being brought from Gavin’s lips. It is a complete juxtaposition of emotions, the joy at the thought of Gavin finally being _here_ , where it was safe- and the devastation that lingered in the angel’s tone. Michael knows Gavin, and he isn’t a quitter. If he’s coming home… that means that it’s over. Gavin’s _giving_ _up_.

“For real?” he asks.

“Yeah.” Gavin says. “I just wanted you to know. Once we’ve got all the details sorted, I’ll… _text_ you.”

“You sound tired Gav,” Michael says tentatively. Gavin is a bit like a stray cat in the sense that Michael treads on eggshells around him because he doesn’t want to spook him. With strays, you have to let them feel safe, let them feel in control. If he wants to find out _anything_ substantial, he’s got to let Gavin come to him.

“You doing alright?” he tries.

“I’m a little tired, Michael.” _Bingo._ “To be honest, I’ve been feeling a little tired for a long while.”

“Well- don’t stay up talking to me all night, get some rest Gav.” Michael cringes at how much he sounds like a spouse. _I don’t know what I’d do without you_ a voice tells him to say in the back of his head. He ignores it. “Get some rest.” He repeats, instead.

“Yeah, yeah I will,” Gavin yawns. “Me and Geoff are just checking into some motel now.”

“Where are you?” Michael asks.

“Russia.”

“Cool.”

“Nah. It’s shit.”

Michael has never heard Gavin swear before. He chooses not to comment on it.

 

* * *

 

Gavin hangs up the phone and slips the nifty device into his pocket. It baffles him, how such a tiny rectangle with such limited functionality can be so useful to him in his borderline human state. He’s gone past the point of living like them. He has a phone and he sleeps at night, yawns when he’s tired and stretches his body in the mornings like Geoff does.

Geoff is at the front desk, arranging them a room for a night in a gruff Russian mumble. Geoff’s newly human mind can’t encompass everything he knew as an angel, but his grasp on human languages is still pretty fluent.

They settle into the motel room and from the moment they set their bags down, something feels off. Even Geoff can sense it, hairs standing up on the backs of his tattoos arms. He shoots Gavin a worried look, before casting his gaze across the room to the tiny window and up at the sky.

“Did you feel that?” Gavin attempts to say before he is interrupted by a voice.

“Geoff. Gavin.”

“ _Caleb?_ ” Geoff takes a defensive stance from his position behind Gavin, and Gavin reaches for his blade quickly. Caleb takes a step backwards, hands up in surrender.

“Hey, woah- no need for that.” He smiles, nodding at the blade in Gavin’s gripped fist. “I promise, brothers- I’m not here to hurt you.”

“Then what do you want?” Geoff asks.

“I was worried!” Caleb exclaims. “One day you just disappear, next day you’re both heaven’s most wanted. Then I hear my _boss_ has been cast _out_! Everyone’s more than on edge upstairs.”

“So why come down here?” Gavin asks. Caleb is his friend and someone who he had worked with for a long time, but being a fugitive has taught him not to trust so easily. Caleb’s small smile is as pure as the invisible halo above his head.

“Please, Gavin. I just wanted to know you guys were okay.”

Slowly, Gavin tucks his blade back up into his sleeve. Geoff steps forwards, and touches Caleb gently on the shoulder before, after a few awkward seconds, deciding to hug him. Caleb hugs back tightly, and when he pulls away tears linger in his eyes.

“So the rumours are true? Gavin’s gone AWOL and Geoff- you’ve… fallen.”

“Yep.” Geoff nods. “They didn’t like me asking questions. You shouldn’t even be down here with us- you’ll get in trouble.”

“I’m safe, for now. Everyone upstairs is turning a blind eye as angel’s flock down to say their final goodbyes.”

“Final goodbyes?” Gavin questions. “Goodbyes for what?”

“That’s what I came to tell you about.” Caleb sighs. “Heaven has been in turmoil since you left. Everything has changed- father has been completely silent and nobody knows what to think.”

“That’s what we’re doing, Caleb!” Gavin says. “We’re trying to find father to fix this mess. My charge- Michael, he’s a guardian and I’ve been using his power to keep me from losing my grace.” Unconsciously, his hand flies to his chest where the pendant sits under his shirt. Caleb doesn’t notice, cheeks flushed as he shakes his head worriedly.

“What?” Geoff asks.

“That’s the thing,” Caleb says. “God has been silent, but somehow- all the angels with charges are having their connections severed. The angels are being separated from their humans completely.”

Gavin feels the space where his human heart would be clench slightly. “But-but me and Michael-”

“-maybe Michael being a guardian has kept your connection up for now, but all the other angels are being cut off, Gavin. Something big is happening and nobody knows what.”

“Michael.” Gavin whispers to himself, eyes flying to Geoff. “I can’t lose him Geoff- I can’t!”

“I know.” Geoff sighs, turning to pat Gavin on the shoulder. “This is why we need to find God. Caleb,” he looks up. “Can you help us in any way?”

“Help you?” Caleb splutters. “Geoff, I’m being dragged up to Heaven by the tips of my wings as we speak. I don’t know how it happened but somehow- the earth feels wrong beneath my feet now.” He glances down at the bright sneakers his vessel wears. “I used to love running through the greenery but now it feels like hot coals on bare skin. My wings are itching to fly away and I don’t understand why.”

“But Caleb, this is wrong-”

“-Try Burnie.” Caleb shrugs. “He’s the closest to God we’ve got. That’s the only advice I can give you.” He says, and before Geoff nor Gavin can ask another question, he has disappeared.

 

* * *

 

 

Michael doesn’t even flinch when he hears his front door fly open, slam against the wall and close again. It worries him for a second that these kind of things don’t faze him anymore, and it’s totally normal for his demon-best-friend to bust into the room without warning with literal flames cracking in his hollow black eyes.

Michael hadn’t even known Ray could do that, and watches in awe and extend his hand towards the cheap drapes hanging over the windows. The white erupts into flames not unlike Ray’s own, and extinguish themselves immediately, curtains left completely uncharred.

Michael’s face whips back from his burning curtains just in time to see Ray crumble slightly, fist gripped by his sides as his eyes fade back to normal.

“Dude!”

“I’m sorry.” Ray sighs, making his way over to the couch. He throws himself against the cushions beside Michael, shoes discarded and legs crossed together. “I’m just… I was so fucking angry. I haven’t been angry like that in a long time. Not since Nixon maybe.”

“-You’re making no sense.” Michael watches his friend’s hands shake, clasped together tightly until his tanned skin turns white. “Dude.” Michael’s attention shifts to the tiny inferno making itself known on his coffee table. “The fire. Quit it.”

“Sorry.” Ray deflates, and the fire disappears as he leans back into the couch and sighs, rubbing his hands over his face. “I… I saw Ryan. I fucking followed him.”

“Shit.” Michael bites his lip. He doesn’t know exactly what’s coming, but judging by Ray’s turbulent emotional state, he can make a pretty good guess. “You saw… her?”

“Yep.” Ray nods. The room falls silent. “I fucking stalked him to some forest where he met her. They were standing there, under a tree and just… talking and laughing and smiling in a way I haven’t seen Ryan fucking smile since… whatever.” He leans forwards, head heavy in his hands. “It’s just… she was standing there and he was staring at her like… like he couldn’t even believe she was real. Have you ever had anyone look at you like that?”

Michael says nothing, but his thoughts skim- as they always do- to Gavin. Ray takes that as answer enough, and sighs again.

“I have.” He says. “Ryan used to look at me like that.”

“Ray.” Michael doesn’t really know what else to say, so he leans forwards and embraces his friend, arm slung over Ray’s shoulder so they can remain cuddled together comfortingly. Ray doesn’t cry, like he expects- he’s just oddly still and quiet, answering Michael’s stream of questions with the odd hum of agreement or denial. Eventually, Michael runs out of questions and Ray excuses himself to the bathroom.

Michael’s phone rings- Geoff’s name lighting up the screen- but he rejects the call. Ray needs him right now- possibly more than Gavin or Geoff will for a long time. Ray hasn’t needed him since before he met Ryan and he couldn’t figure out how to turn his heating off and was sweating all through July before he caved and asked for help. The Ray met Ryan and he suddenly didn’t need anyone else. Michael understands now why Ray was so immediately head over heels for someone he thought was just a tech nerd- but back then, it had hurt. It had hurt that Ray was so quick to stop needing him.

So now- Ryan is being an asshole and Ray needs him again. It is a somewhat bittersweet feeling.

 

* * *

 

With the invasion of demons and angels in his life, it’s been a long time since Michael has heard someone quite calmly knock on his front door. Ray has a habit of bursting in and Gavin was always the one to suddenly appear in front of him without previous notice. Geoff never really left the house and Ryan…

Ryan was never far behind Ray.

Michael opened the door with a scowl, Ryan standing on the other side with a tired expression and his arms folded across his chest. At Michael’s hostility, he barely raises an eyebrow.

“Ray here?” he asks. Ryan has this habit of asking questions he already knows the answer to. Michael knows about their weird demon smelling thing- if they’re looking for each other, they’ll find each other. Ryan knows Ray’s there and he probably knows that Michael knows that he knows- making it especially obvious by the way Ryan glances behind Michael and steps forwards in an attempt to push past him. Although Ryan is a demon and could probably rip him in half, Michael stands his ground and blocks Ryan’s entrance.

“He doesn’t want to see you.” Michael slams the door. Ryan opens it again, a little more forcefully this time. The minimal brush of Ryan’s knuckles against the door sends Michael stumbling backwards- Ryan frowning gently as he saunters into the room with his hands tucked into his jeans.

“What’s wrong with you?” Ryan glances at Michael, just as Ray appears from down the corridor. He hangs back, as far from Ryan as he can be without turning and running. He refuses to make eye contact, and Ryan can immediately tell somethings up. His gaze shifts to Ray. “What’s up with _you_?” he asks.

“He fucking _knows_ , alright?” Michael snarls. Ryan’s confusion only spreads further across his face as he looks between the two- Michael abrasive and shout, Ray drawing further into himself as his eyes begin to cloud over.

“Eyes.” Ryan stares at him, blue rings glowing. The whites of Ray’s eyes slowly return as he looks up, and locks gaze with Ryan again. “You’re upset.” Ryan stares at him, bewildered. “Why? What is it? What’s wrong?”

“He knows that you’re cheating.” Michael interrupts, spite dripping from his tone. Ryan tears his gaze from Ray and turns to Michael viciously.

“What?!” he asks incredulously.

“-So you can just fuck off. Ray is obviously upset that you’re such a ginormous fucking _asshole_ \- so why don’t you just fucking leave?!”

“ _What_ are you talking about?” Ryan yells. Michael is gearing up to _really_ start shouting- Ray can see the anger bristling inside him as he attempts to square up to Ryan, who looks suddenly more than twice his size and stature. Ray rushes forwards, a hand on Michael’s shoulder to pull him backwards.

“What?” Ryan asks, reaching forwards to take Ray’s hand in his. Ray snatches it away the moment Ryan’s skin brushes against his. “What is it? What’s all this _cheating_ nonsense?”

“I fucking _saw_ you!” Ray yells. It’s rare that he explodes like this- real _human_ emotion coursing inside of him. It’s the kind of emotion that he sits back and watches Michael feel every day, the endless question of _why?_ and _how?_ on the tip of his tongue. He has never understood it before- how quickly his best friend can work himself up on thought alone, but now- he starts to believe that he understands.

Because his boyfriend has cheated on him- and it feels fucking _awful_.

“We’ve both seen you.” Ray sucks in a deep breath, exhaling as his body shakes. “I fucking saw you with her today!”

“With _who_?” Ryan shouts.

“The girl with the purple hair!”

Ryan freezes. Ray hangs his head and holds back the sob that threatens to escape his chest. Ryan standing stock still with wide eyes and eyebrows up to his hairline is enough answer for him. He _knows_ Ryan- knows him better than anyone else.

Ryan can’t lie to him now, and they both know it.

“Shit, Ray-”

Ray isn’t even aware that he’s started crying until Ryan is lurching forwards to hug him, and on the high of his own emotion alone he sends his boyfriend flying across the room and into the wall with a heavy thud, drywall cracking underneath him. Ryan’s always been more powerful than him- coming from age and experience and general willpower to learn, so the sudden urge of power from Ray’s fingertips shocks them both instantly.

“It’s not what you think.” Ryan wheezes. Ray rubs his face with his wrist and red blood smears across it, leaking from his nostrils and his eye sockets.

“Don’t fucking lie to me.” He reaches out, dragging Ryan’s body upwards and pinning it against the wall. Invisible arms hold his boyfriend to the wall, and Michael rushes to Ray’s side, watching him with worried eyes.

“Ray-”

“Don’t lie to me.” Ray yells again, cutting Michael off completely.

“I’m not.” Ryan chokes, pushing against Ray’s grip. He isn’t using his full power; Ray would certainly know if he was. Ryan wouldn’t just toss Ray across the room- Ryan would toss Ray across the fucking country. He’s powerful enough and clever enough to ease Ray off of him until he slips from the grip, Ray stumbling backwards only slightly and regaining his balance quickly.

Michael protectively rushes to stand in front of him as Ryan stalks forwards but the demon tosses him aside and into the couch like a ragdoll before grabbing Ray’s face in his hands. Ray can’t tell if it’s supposed to be gentle of forceful- but when Ryan’s thumbs spread across his cheeks and swipe at the bloody tears it feels so _right_ that he can’t help but stand there and let him.

“You really thought I was cheating?” Ryan asks with a smile. “With _Meg_?”

“What?” Ray’s voice is barely a whisper. Ryan sighs pressing their foreheads together briefly. Michael makes a strained noise from beside them, sprawled out on the couch.

“What?” he repeats.

“I should probably explain.” Ryan takes a step back, releasing Ray’s face and his grip on Michael simultaneously. “Meg… she’s- not like other girls.”

“What’s that fucking supposed to mean?” Ray frowns.

“Not like that- I see now that that sounds bad. I probably shouldn’t have said that.” Ryan babbles, tugging at his hair anxiously. “Sorry. Main thing is- I’m not cheating. Meg isn’t a _human_.”

“So fucking what? She’s another demon or angel. What does that fuck matter?” Michael growls, stretching his stiff body whilst holding his glare on Ryan.

“No, you don’t understand.” Ryan can’t wipe the grin off his face and the notion of is makes Ray feel uneasy. Ryan is so fucking excited over the prospect of _what_ this girl is, and he can’t help but feel ridiculously jealous. Up until then, he was ninety-five percent convinced that he was being cheated on.

Now, the odds have shrunk to fifty-three. And-a-half. Maybe

“She’s a hybrid- something so… prohibited and forbidden and rare.”

“Cut the shit.” Michael grunts, folding his arms over his chest. “What-the-fuck is she?”

Ryan’s eyes sparkle. “She’s half demon, half angel.”


	14. Home (Is Wherever You Are)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> “You’re lying.” Ray shakes his head. Ryan full-on fucking beams at him.
> 
> “I swear to you,” he holds Ray’s hands tightly between his. “I’m not. She’s the only half demon half angel hybrid I’ve ever crossed paths with. The only one I’ve even heard of for fucking eons-”
> 
> Ray frowns. “But I thought they were just myths?”
> 
> “So did I.” Ryan laughs. “I was doing some research in ways to connect to God, and I stumbled upon her because I accidentally ended up summoning her. She’s…”
> 
> “Beautiful?” Ray asks. Ryan glares at him.

** Chapter Fourteen: Home (Is Wherever You Are) **

****

 

 

 

 

“You’re lying.” Ray shakes his head. Ryan full-on fucking _beams_ at him.

“I swear to you,” he holds Ray’s hands tightly between his. “I’m not. She’s the only half demon half angel hybrid I’ve ever crossed paths with. The only one I’ve even heard _of_ for fucking _eons-_ ”

Ray frowns. “But I thought they were just myths?”

“So did I.” Ryan laughs. “I was doing some research in ways to connect to God, and I stumbled upon her because I accidentally ended up summoning her. She’s…”

“Beautiful?” Ray asks. Ryan glares at him.

“Ray.” He shakes his head, resting their foreheads together. “Whatever I have to do to convince you that _I_ am not cheating, let me know and I’ll do it. She’s young and she’s clueless. She was adopted as a kid- thought she was human.”

“Moron.” Ray scoffs. “She sounds dumb and stupid and… fucking dumb.”

“Don’t be petty.” Ryan chides with a smile. Ray looks up at him, and Ryan only grins wider. Something about Ryan’s smile- the thin lipped smirk that holds a thousand of the world’s darkest secrets has always gotten him, right in the gut. Ryan’s hands are warm against his and his breath is minty and cool against his face.

Ray can’t help himself. He smiles.

“I’ve been helping her out. That’s all it is.” Ryan promises. “She’s been having a hard time understanding her power and I’ve been… coaching her, I guess? She’s a nice girl, alright?”

“Alright.” Ray nods. He turns his face and looks across the room at Michael, who up until that point has only been silently watching them, unsure how to react. A flush finds its way across Ray’s face.

“Sorry, we should go home.” He says. Michael smiles at his best friend, and shrugs like he doesn’t really care at all. (Ray knows that he absolutely, irrefutably does.)

“Do what you need to do, I guess.” Michael says, rubbing his hands over his face. “Talk, fuck- whatever. I’ll be here if you need me... I guess”

“Thanks.” Ray nods. “I’ll see you.”

Michael blinks, and Ray and Ryan are already gone. He knows demons don’t have fancy wings like Gavin- or at least, he hopes they don’t because that would be _terrifying_ , but they can move pretty fucking quickly and that always worries him.

Michael walks over to his door, and shuts the door behind them. They’re long gone of course, probably already forgotten all about him as they… do whatever it is demons do to make up. The whole angel-demon-not-Ryan’s-secret-girlfriend thing confuses him more than a little, and it’s exactly something he would usually turn to Gavin to talk about.

But Gavin isn’t there. Gavin could be on the other side of the world.

Gavin could be coming home.

But he isn’t.

 

* * *

 

 

Gavin’s nightmares don’t plague him that night- wherever the angel is, he sure isn’t sleeping.

Maybe that’s the reason why Michael tosses and turns in his bed, sweating despite the fact that he’d pulled his constricting clothes off and tossed them on the floor an hour ago. His eyes are closed but his body is tense, mind awake and running on speed.

Ray and Ryan and Gavin and Geoff and the girl with the purple hair and Lindsay swirl through his mind like spirits in a Dickens novel he’d never bothered reading. Thoughts of how simple his life had been before them all.

He refuses to cry- Michael Jones doesn’t cry- but he does let out a pained whinge desperately catching his breath as he sits up, hunched over his bed with his arms wrapped around himself.

For the first time since moving to Austin, Texas- he feels homesick.

 

* * *

 

 

The three booming knocks at his door make him swear under his breath as he drags himself from the stiff sweat-stained sheets of his bed.

“I swear to God Ray.” He calls roughly through the door as his fist curls around the handle. “If you’re coming here to gloat about make-up sex, I’m shutting the God damn door right back in your-”

Michael stops speaking when the door opens. Michael stops speaking, stops moving- for a few seconds too long, he even stops breathing.

“You alright love?” Gavin asks with a grin. “You look a little pale.”

The hug he gives Gavin feels like bliss. He puts it down to their connection- the necklaces they both wear warming against his chest as they press together and fuse again. Even the smell of Gavin, floating up his nostrils for the first time in forever, and it’s masked slightly by the smell of the world, and the places he’s been since the last time they hugged.

It occurs to him only as they pull away and he moves to hug Geoff, that Gavin smells like a _human_.

“Hello strangers.” Ray and Ryan’s voices come from behind him, inside the apartment. Michael wishes he was used to his friends magically appearing in his home, but no matter how many times it happens, he is still jolted by it.

Reunions have always interested Michael. He’s never had anyone close enough to him that he’s missed long enough to ‘reunite’ with them, but he’s seen other people and television characters and movies where people fight for so long to finally see each other, and when they do- it’s this magical moment where they suddenly realise how much they truly love each other, and never want to be apart again. _Absence makes the heart grow fonder_ , and all that other bull that Michael would soak up like a sponge.

And he really did think it was bullshit, before Gavin walked right back through his apartment doors and he suddenly realised that he never wanted the idiot to leave ever again.

Ray watches him curiously as Geoff and Gavin explain their findings, but Michael tries to ignore him and listen to the two. It’s impossible to catch much of the conversation with Gavin, practically glowing in the centre of the room, twisting his necklace between his fingers thoughtfully. An old dusty book sits on the kitchen counter and Michael mimics Gavin, squeezing his necklace gently.

Gavin’s green eyes flick up to stare at him.

“You alright, Michael?”

“What? Yeah?” Michael shakes his brain out of its daze. “I just… drifted off. What’s this book again?”

“Old spell book.” Geoff explains, watching him intently. “Found it in an ancient tomb in Jerusalem.”

“How’d you even get in there?” Michael scoffs. Gavin rolls his eyes and grins playfully.

“Michael,” he huffs. Michael’s heart twinges at the familiar drawl of his name. “I’m literally an angel, remember?”

“Oh yeah.” Michael replies, a little breathless. His tongue pokes from his mouth and dampens his dry lips. “Right, sorry.”

The room is silent for a few moments, and Geoff’s steely eyes bare into him. “You sure you’re alright, kid?” he asks. Michael bites his lip hard enough to catch it on the sharp part of his tooth and draw blood. “Yeah.” He nods, unaware of his body swaying slightly. “I’m… I’m totally fuckign fine-”

 

* * *

 

 

Michael wakes up in his own bed.

It’s strange, being so surprised to actually wake up in the night in his own bed. The last few times he’s mysteriously fallen unconscious, it’s been as a result of angelic or demonic magical bullshit.

For a few seconds, Michael wonders if it was all just a dream.

“You alright, Michael?”

Michael turns, slowly onto his side to be met with Gavin, laid beside him. He actually flinches, jumping backwards to the edge of his bed in surprise. Gavin lays beside him, grinning through the darkness.

“Sorry if I gave you a fright.”

“Fucking hell Gav.” Michael’s hand rests on his chest, and the creeper necklace tinges beneath his palm. “Wha-what happened?”

“You passed out.” Gavin explains with a yawn. It’s a strange feeling, seeing Gavin yawn beside him. Something Michael had only dared fantasised about on nights when he felt particularly lonely- Gavin beside him, as if they could ever live a normal and human life.

“Passed out?” he whispers. “Why?”

“Geoff reckons it was a bit overwhelming for your little human brain,” Gavin playfully pokes him in the middle of his forehead, and Michael can’t help but grin at the action. “Us showing up- our connection suddenly being in such close proximity after being all over the world. But don’t worry, he says you’ll be fine.”

“How long’ve I been out?”

“It’s two in the morning.”

Michael frowns, looking past Gavin to the glowing alarm clock on his nightstand. “Fuck. You really took it out of me.”

“Sorry.” Gavin smiles. “Guess I just missed you, way too much.”

“Yeah.” Michael nods. “I guess you did.”

 

* * *

 

 

 

Gavin, at no complaint to Michael, becomes a permanent resident not only in his apartment, but in his bed.

This is how it goes most nights:

Gavin starts flagging around midnight, Geoff gives him a worried glance and within minutes, Gavin is on his feet, dragging himself lethargically into Michael’s room. Ray and Ryan will head upstairs not long after, leaving Michael and Geoff till one thirty or later, watching _Always_ _Sunny_ re-runs or worse until one of them caves. Michael will offer to take the couch, Geoff will smirk and tell him to go and cuddle his angel.

Michael will do so.

He never does it intentionally; he starts off by slipping into the bed next to Gavin’s sleeping form. There’s enough space between them for a risky roll over, nothing more. Gavin snores quietly and Michael falls asleep to the sound of.

Michael wakes up, arms wrapped around Gavin tightly, face buried in his hair or against the back of his neck, Gavin rolled onto his chest, or plastered against his back with his arms tightly wrapped around his torso- or even sometimes simply just their heads, laid in the crook of each other with their hands almost intertwined between them.

Michael always wakes first, but he’s low enough to pretend he’s asleep until Gavin stirs, just to have those extra minutes of comfort. When Gavin does wake up, he doesn’t ask questions. Michael puts it down to the fact that he’s an angel- he probably doesn’t even have knowledge of the phrase _spooning_ in his vast encyclopaedia of a brain.

Do angels have brains? Michael has no idea.

It takes a week or so before Gavin gets his wings out again, and Michael finds himself eagerly anticipating the night. The apartment is empty, for once, Geoff out with Ryan and Ray upstairs playing COD, so Gavin sheepishly takes Michael by the hand and leads him into his- _their_ bedroom.

“I just… I just wanted to show you.” Is the only explanation the angel gives as he strips off his (Michael’s, again) t-shirt and sits on his knees in the middle of Michael’s bed. It makes Michael’s gut stir with worry, the anxious look on Gavin’s face and the way his hands wring together worriedly.

“Show me.” Michael whispers, climbing onto the bed to sit opposite Gavin. The angel reaches forwards, covering Michael’s eyes with the palms of his hands, so only the faintest beams of piercing light filter their way through. After a few seconds of blindly waiting for Gavin to stop panting, his eyes are uncovered and they blow wide in shock.

Michael remembers Gavin's wings, of course. Beautiful brown with white and gold flecks splayed through them, giant and beautifully _alive_ , shimmering when they catch the light. However, this time around, things are different.

Gavin’s eyes are fixed to his hands nervously, but Michael barely watched for a second. He’s too overcome by the mirage of Gavin’s once so enchanting wings, dirty brown in colour, feathers askew and fluffy from being misplaced. The golden shimmer is almost non-existent, and the tips are faintly dark from being stained with blood.

“-Gav…” Michael exhales his name like a prayer, because he isn’t sure what else to say. Gavin looks up at him sadly, and as he folds his arms around his front, his wings twitch shyly.

“Sorry.” He laughs nervously. “I’m not really very beautiful anymore.”

Michael’s heart stops when Gavin looks away to the wall. For the first time, he takes in the difference between Gavin’s body when they first met and now. He’s always been a lanky piece of shit- that’s out of the question- but this time around he looks _skinny_ , tufts of wiry hair coating his almost visible ribcage. Bruising littering his collarbones and shoulders. For the first time, Michael wonders how heavy his wings must be on his butchered back.

“Don’t say that.” He whispers despite. Slowly, and with a nod of permission from Gavin he reaches forwards, fingers dancing in the inside curve of his wings, smoothing the crooked feathers and making Gavin’s back arch slightly. “You’re beautiful Gav. Wings or not, you’ll always be beautiful.”

A small smile twitches on Gavin’s face. “Thank you, Michael. But that’s not much use, is it? If I lose all my power and I’m not an angel anymore, what use will I even be for you. You wouldn’t even want me around.” He scratches the sides of his arms nervously, unable to meet Michael’s eyes- brown disks blown wide with disbelief.

“Is that what you think?” He asks, astonished as Gavin nods silently. Michael draws his fingers back from Gavin’s wings, and reaches forwards on instance to hug him, the contact from Gavin’s skin making his chest burn. “Gavin, no- fuck no!” he squeezes tighter, breathing in the clean scent of Gavin’s skin. “Fuck being an angel and all that shit. You mean way more to me than that. I couldn’t care less if you had power or not. You’re Gavin… and… that’s,” his words die on his tongue, a faint blush spreading across his cheeks as Gavin’s wings flutter behind him. “…yeah- you know what I mean.” He settles on, choosing the ultimately chivalrous path of pussying out.

“I love you, Michael.” Gavin grins as the two pull away from each other. Michael’s stomach bottoms out, and suddenly- pussying out is looking to be the _worst_ possible move.

Words fail him at the worst possible time, but Gavin doesn’t seem to let it faze him much. Instead, he leans forwards and kisses Michael as lightly as a feather on the corner of his mouth, barely giving Michael a second to press his lips back against the angel’s before laying down on his chest in the bed and spreading his wings out wide over his back.

Michael slowly settles beside him until their faces are close together, and he feels the soft touch of Gavin’s wings, stroking up and down his back. It settles him to sleep far more quickly, the whisper of _I love you too_ dying on his lips.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey- if you liked it, please leave kudos! Or, even better- leave a comment!


	15. Flower Girl

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> “Gavin,” Ryan announces one day in the middle of the living room. They’d been having a relatively simple night, the four of them sitting around the TV playing Minecraft when Ryan’s silhouette appears in the doorway, a small smile on his face as the light catches his skin. They all turn and look towards him, unfazed, but Gavin shifts in his seat, and his back stiffens. Although his wings are camouflaged, Michael has become so acquainted with them that he can vividly picture exactly what they’re doing in the shadows- twitching up protectively behind his back.
> 
> “I’ve got someone I need you to meet.”

** Chapter Fifteen: Flower Girl **

****

 

“Gavin,” Ryan announces one day in the middle of the living room. They’d been having a relatively simple night, the four of them sitting around the TV playing Minecraft when Ryan’s silhouette appears in the doorway, a small smile on his face as the light catches his skin. They all turn and look towards him, unfazed, but Gavin shifts in his seat, and his back stiffens. Although his wings are camouflaged, Michael has become so acquainted with them that he can vividly picture exactly what they’re doing in the shadows- twitching up protectively behind his back.

“I’ve got someone I need you to meet.” Ryan steps through the doorway, and a girl that Michael has seen before follows him shyly. Purple-haired-girl, the one that for a good while both he and Ray had been fairly convinced was Ryan’s illicit mistress is dressed in a brightly coloured t-shirt and a short wavy skirt, high socks and flat shoes and a white smile radiating the whole… _California-girl_ vibe.

Ray glares at her quietly, but chooses to say nothing. Geoff frowns, and Gavin stands up from his seat completely.

“But… that isn’t possible-”

“-except it is.” Ryan grins, hand resting on the girl’s shoulder. “Gavin, Geoff, Michael, Ray- this is Meg, the only half-demon, half-angel hybrid in recent existence.”

“Uh… hi?” Meg gives a small wave, eyes skimming across the group briefly. “Nice to, uh- meet you all. Ryan talks about you all the time.” Her eyes settle lastly on Ray, who’s got his own eyes completely shrouded in black and is staring straight ahead at the television.

“Wow.” Gavin stalks forwards like a cat approaching a mouse, reaching out without thinking to hold Meg’s temples with his fingers, eyes falling shut blissfully. Meg looks uncomfortable at first, but quickly relaxes in Gavin’s touch as the angel takes a reading that makes his legs wobble like a deer. Michael stiffens on the couch, and decides instantly that he _hates_ her- just as much as Ray probably wants to.

Over the course of the next week, however, it becomes harder and harder to hate Meg.

She’s infuriatingly nice and irritatingly funny- she likes video games and cosplay and conventions. She models in her underwear for online websites but is simultaneously the most _normal_ girl ever- she was born in Texas to unknown biological parents and then put up for adoption in the state of California.

“I came back to Texas looking for my birth parents. That’s when Ryan found me.” She recalls the story fondly, as Ryan hugs her gently from the side. Michael has never seen Ryan be particularly _huggy_ with anyone aside from Ray, but there’s something about Meg that none of them can really keep away from.

Geoff takes an instant liking to her, and Ray does too despite his obvious protestations. Michael tries to keep his distance but always ends up sucked into excited conversation about Zelda and Mario. Ryan loves her to death and the two get on like a house on fire- but nobody is as completely enchanted with her as Gavin.

“Stop glaring.” Geoff scolds from the couch as Michael watches Meg and Gavin laugh together on his tiny balcony as Gavin continues to assess her powers. Or at least, that’s what he said he was heading out there to do- to Michael it looks more like an excuse for the two to talk and laugh and joke alone, shut away from the others.

Their connection had been instant, from the moment Gavin had rested his fingertips on her beautiful little face.

“I’m not.” Michael grumbles around his coffee, and Geoff laughs at him harshly.

“You are.” He snorts. “And I know exactly what you’re thinking.”

“Oh really?” Michael sneers, gulping the coffee down quick enough to choke as Meg’s hand rests on Gavin’s forearm and the sparks of grace fizzle under his skin. Nobody else had ever been able to have that effect on Gavin. Nobody else except for him, anyway

“Yep.” Geoff joins him in the kitchen, watching the angel and the hybrid laugh and talk animatedly. “You’re thinking… you’re thinking that Gavin has suddenly forgotten all about his _boi_ in favour of the exciting new toy that Ryan brought home. And that- he’s gonna fall in love with her and make the beautiful angel-hybrid babies that you could never give him.”

“Geoff-”

“-And I’m here to tell you that you’re wrong.” Geoff sighs, staring Michael down with his shockingly blue eyes. If Michael didn’t know better, he would’ve thought that Geoff still held every single speck of his grace he ever had within them. “That fucking moron out there has loved you since before he understood how to love. He likes Meg, because she’s a fucking nice kid and she’s smart and interesting and powerful. Meg could be helpful to what he’s trying to achieve, but that doesn’t change the fact that he _loves_ you.”

“but _Geoff-_ ”

“-Nope.” Geoff grins. “I’m not listening. This is not my battle to fight.” He shrugs, as Meg and Gavin turn, making their way back inside the apartment. Geoff leans over to Michael, close enough to whisper in his ear, “Talk to him- otherwise, you’ll regret it forever.”

* * *

 

Two nights later, Meg and Gavin came giggling through the door. They’d been out the whole day, practicing or researching or whatever bullshit they’d been talking about when they left. Michael had ignored them both, choosing instead to stew in his own discomfort with Ray on the couch. However, his best friend had let him down and chosen to spend the day quietly making out with Ryan and playing video games in his armchair whilst Geoff snored off his hangover in the bedroom, leaving Michael feeling more than a little bit alone.

“I need a bigger fucking apartment.” He muttered, just as Meg and Gavin came bounding through the door.

“Hi Michael.” Gavin grins, rushing over to slam himself onto the sofa beside Michael, nosing his shoulder affectionately until he can’t help but smile, his arm coming around Gavin’s shoulder instinctively. Even Ryan and Ray stop trying to swallow each other to smile and greet the pair, Ryan getting up to take Meg home and Ray grinning at the pair as they head towards the door, going as far as offering to come with.

He’s clearly had a change of heart, and Michael is irritatingly pleased.

It leaves he and Gavin alone again, except for Geoff who is quite literally a world away, lost in his vivid dreams that he drinks to avoid, sat cuddled together on the sofa. For once, however, Michael feels as if he has absolutely nothing to talk about.

Gavin takes a minute, but eventually notices when Michael stays silent and Geoff’s snoring grows louder.

“What?” Michael eventually snaps, when Gavin’s intense stare starts to make him feel uneasy. “Stop fucking staring at me.”

“Something’s wrong.” Gavin titles his head as he continues to watch Michael, and scarily, it reminds Michael for the first time in a long time- that Gavin is not a human. Gavin is an angel, even in the loosest sense of the word.

“It’s nothing.”

“No it isn’t. You’re upset with me- why?” Gavin asks. Michael frowns.

“What’s up with you- new fucking girlfriend been giving you power boosts? Why are you suddenly all fucking… _angel_ again?”

“ _Girlfriend?”_ Gavin’s nose wrinkles. “Is _that_ what you’re upset about, Michael?”

With the creeper pendant burning at his chest, Michael rolls his eyes and folds his arms across his chest defensively. Gavin grins at him.

“You think that because I like Meg- I don’t like you anymore.”

Michael huffs. “Well- no.” he lies. “You obviously have a lot in common with her because she’s… part angel or whatever. It’s fine.” He lies again, but this time, punctuated it with a bitter shrug. “I don’t care.”

“Yes you do.” Gavin pokes Michael playfully with his finger. “You’re _jealous_.”

“I’m not jealous!”

“Yes, you are!” Gavin laughs, the perfect way to tug on Michael’s heartstrings. The asshole does it like he _knows_ , and his fingertips glow as they brush against Michael’s wrist gently. “Michael- you have _nothing_ to be jealous about.”

“I’m not-”

“Meg’s nice.” Gavin shrugs. “She’s… new and exciting but I’m interested in her power, more than anything. And she’s a nice girl and a good friend, you know? Her power it’s… extraordinary, honestly. She feels _amazing_ ,” he gushes, but his eyes don’t sparkle until they stare directly into Michaels, “But neither her soul nor her grace feels anything close to yours,” his fingers stroke up and down the veins on Michael’s forearm, making his skin tingle as Gavin’s grace reaches out for him, “She doesn’t call out to me like you do. And she isn’t the one making me more angel- more powerful… it’s you, Michael.” He pulls Michael’s arm up to his face, kissing the beginning of his wrist and making the blue sparks shoot up his arm and straight into his chest like miniaturised fireworks. Michael tenses instantly, but not out of discomfort. The feeling of Gavin’s lips against his skin is so exhilarating with his sudden new surge of power, that Michael can’t help but feel the itch to lean forwards and catch Gavin’s power with his own pert mouth.

“Being back here, with you,” Gavin continues. “You make me better.”

Not for the first time in the presence of Gavin, words die in his throat. However, Gavin always seems to understand exactly what he wants to say.

“Nobody- angel, demon, hybrid… whatever, could ever match what I feel for you, Michael Jones.”

“You assholes holding hands again?”

Geoff’s voice makes Michael bolt backwards like a spooked cat, scrambling his way to the edge of the couch with an oblivious Gavin turning to greet Geoff with a wide smile. Geoff eyes them both suspiciously, but doesn’t make comment before walking around the sofa and sitting himself in between them both. Michael is uncomfortably grateful for the gap between he and Gavin, because he’s not really sure if he would physically be able to control himself without the barrier.

Gavin and Geoff melt into easy conversation, but between it all, Gavin sneaks little looks in his direction, making his stomach flutter embarrassingly, before eventually he excuses himself to the bathroom and slips into a cool shower in a half-assed attempt to put whatever moment they had just shared far into the recesses of his mind.

 _Gavin’s an angel_ he continuously reminds himself. _Gavin doesn’t experience emotion like humans do. When he says he loves you… he doesn’t mean it the way you think he does._

Unsurprisingly, it doesn’t work.

* * *

 

“Whos’ Gavin?”

Michael flinches so skittishly that Lindsay actually snorts at him as he fumbles to regain grip of his phone, which slides around in his hands like a stick of butter. The half formed text to Gavin become a mess of garbled letters and punctuation and he hastily deletes it, types out a quick _talk to you later_ and presses send as Lindsay gives him irritatingly knowing looks across her drink.

“C’mon Michael, we’ve been like, best buds for years. I see you texting this ‘Gavin’ guy all the time- what’s going on?”

Michael remains silent, but Lindsay’s never been one to give up so easily.

“Come on- he’s totally your boyfriend, right? I called it like three weeks ago!”

Michael groans into his beer. “you noticed that?” he asks, glancing at his phone as it vibrates on the bar. He’s at the wrong angle to be able to read the message, but there’s at least six of Gavin’s favourite new discovery- emoji’s- strung through it.

“I’ve been noticing it for weeks, dude.” She scoffs, sipping from her own drink. “You’re not very good at hiding it. I wanna meet him”

Michael groans. Although, he wants absolutely nothing more than to have Lindsay come over and see Gavin in all his powerful glory- she has no idea about the whole tiny insignificant detail of Gavin’s-not-human, Ryan-and-Ray-aren’t-human, Michael-isn’t’-exactly-a-normal-human and nothing-else-makes-sense.

“I don’t know Lindsay.” He settles for instead.

“Come on,” Lindsay whines, elbowing him sharply in the ribs. “I just wanna meet your boyfriend and embarrass you! What are friends for?”

“Not my boyfriend.” Michael glares. “He’s just a friend”

Lindsay rolls her eyes. “Sure…” she says, but either she’s a lousy liar or has no qualms about Michael knowing well that she doesn’t believe him for a single second. “I still wanna meet him! Tell me something about him.”

He sighs, “Like what?”

“I don’t know,” she shrugs. “What colour’s his eyes?”

“They’re like… green but sometimes brown. Like a weird mix,” Michael explains quickly. “Hazel- I think he called it once- but sometimes they have like… this little like twist of blue in there too. It’s hard to describe, and-”

“You seem to be gushing a lot about the eyes of your _friend_.”

“ _Fuck.”_

“I want to meet him.” She repeats, giggling over her beer at Michael’s frustrated pout. “Boyfriend, friend, whatever. Obviously he’s your new obsession, so I want to be able to at least approve.”

“Shut up.” He shakes his head, grin unavoidable “Maybe you can meet him, I don’t know. He… works a lot.”

“Don’t we all?”

 _I don’t_ dies on Michael’s tongue. Since Gavin and Geoff’s not-so-miraculous return, work hasn’t even crossed his mind. His bookmarks sit metaphorically dusty on his laptop, colleges desperately waiting for his completed applications that will likely never come.

“What about you?” he changes the subject. “Anyone on the horizon I’ve got to be worried about?”

Lindsay scoffs. “Unfortunately no. I met a new friend though,” she reaches into her jeans, pulling out her precious IPhone, wrapped in an obnoxious oversized rubber cat cover. “Here,” her lock screen flashes brightly on a photo that used to be the one of him and her on Halloween, now replaced by someone else.

Someone Michael recognises instantly.

“-Her name’s Meg, I just met her a couple weeks ago. She seems pretty cool.”

* * *

 

Meg is sitting on the arm of his couch, grinning as she watches Gavin, Ray and Ryan battle against Geoff in the new Super Mario game on the dust-collecting WiiU. As far as Michael’s aware, it’s supposed to be a co-op game, but Geoff has other ideas (as he usually) and has decided to make the simple side-scroller as awkward and difficult as possible for the others, in a very Geoff-like way.

Gavin doesn’t even turn from the screen as Michael silently walks into the apartment, calling out, “Hi Michael! How was your fr- _oh, for GOD’S SAKE GEOFF_! YOU BLOODY LITTLE-”

It’s the first time Michael’s ever heard Gavin use God’s name in vain, and he even catches Geoff raising an eyebrow at him. The older itches to scold, to tease- but he knows he just doesn’t have the authority anymore, and instead clears the path slightly for Gavin to make his way through.

“I’m helping.” He then laughs along with the rest of them.

“Hey Michael.” Meg smiles at him softly as he walks further in the room and behind the couch, briefly ruffling at Gavin’s hair playfully until the angel wriggles away from him. Michael can only look at her with suspicion and doubt, because it doesn’t matter how fucking nice she is- she’s gone from sparking up a friendship with Ryan, to infiltrating his apartment to randomly meeting Lindsay all in the space of a few weeks, and some small part of it just doesn’t make sense to him.

It’s very likely and reasonable that the three events are pure coincidence, but Michael believes in coincidence just about as much as he believes in God.

“Can I talk to you?” he asks quietly. He doesn’t want to draw attention on himself from the others, but the from the moment he speaks Ryan’s eyes burn into him, silently and terrifying and threatening from afar.

“Sure.” Meg noticed Ryan’s glaring and rolls her eyes, grinning at him playfully, before nodding for Michael to follow her out onto the tiny balcony.

When the thin strip of grated metal had been covered in potted and hanging plants he isn’t aware of, but as more and more supernatural beings inhabit his space and make it their own, his permission becomes more and more irrelevant.

Meg’s hair matches the hibiscus in the hanging plant above the sliding door, and he understands why everyone seems to be so enraptured by her.

“What’s up, Michael?”

Michael swallows.

“I-I just wanted to know,” the pricks of aggression melt away as Meg watches over the balcony and out into the city. She makes it look so elegant, a simple lean over flower infested metal a couple floors up from the grubby city. “What…” the final spark of anger dies away as she turns to look at him, and for a second, his chest tightens as the flowers seemingly lean into her. “Lindsay. She’s my best friend- she says she knows you.”

“Lindsay.” Meg grins. “Yeah, we met a couple weeks ago. Don’t worry- I’m not stalking you or anything. We met in some dive bar and bonded over Mario party. She’s pretty cool.”

“She is.” Michael nods, running his tongue over his chapped lips. “So… yeah- I was just curious, I guess-”

“-Michael.” Meg straightens. The flowers turn back towards the sun. “Listen, I understand.”

“Understand what?”

“I fucking swan in here, to _your_ apartment and within two weeks I’ve been mistaken for Ryan’s secret girlfriend, gotten close to Gavin and now, suddenly, I know Lindsay too. It’s all stupid coincidence, but I get that it looks bad and I would probably feel trodden on if it was me. So I’m sorry.”

“-Meg.”

“It’s fine.” She laughs, unabashedly. “Michael. It’s clear as fucking day that Ryan loves Ray, and Gavin, likewise, loves you. I’m not coming between any of that. I’m here to help where I can, and if I’m useless- just say the word and I’ll fuck off back to LA.”

“You don’t have to do that.” Michael sighs. “Look- I’m an over-protective asshole and I get jealous easily. You’re a fucking nice girl- and all those assholes in there are lucky to have you in their lives in some way or another.”

“-Then you’re lucky too.” She turns back to open the door. “Because I’m your friend now, just as much as I’m theirs.”

When she leaves the balcony, Michael watches the flowers wilt slightly in her absence.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> What did you think of Meg? What did you think of this chapter?! Feel free to leave a comment answering- I hope I did her justice.


	16. Gavin and The Garden of Eden

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> “I swear to God Ryan- fucking learn to knock for fuck’s sake!”
> 
> With an overload of sneer and sarcasm, Ryan reaches out to grab Meg’s wrist and tug her out of Michael’s front door, closing it with a loud slam followed by another three knocks in rapid succession. Michael’s shout of asshole dies on his lips, as Ryan doesn’t give him more than second before swinging the door open again, and the pair bound inside.
> 
> “Happy?”
> 
> “Ecstatic.” Michael glares, as Gavin laughs beside him on the couch. Geoff knocks back in the armchair with a beer and Ray sits in front of him, closing his DS with an audible snap at Ryan’s urgency.
> 
> “What is it?” he asks, just as Michael notices the giant leather bound book, cradled in Meg’s tiny arms. It’s the one Geoff and Gavin had brought back from Jerusalem- real human skin pages (gross) and intricate foreign markings that may-or-may-not be written in blood (double gross). It’s a priceless artefact that Gavin stole from a tomb , but it gets tossed onto his kitchen counter with the six of them gathered around it as carelessly as a copy of US Weekly.
> 
> “We’ve found it!”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Gavin finally gets the answers he's been looking for

** Chapter Sixteen: Gavin and The Garden of Eden **

 

 

****

“I swear to _God_ Ryan- fucking learn to knock for _fuck’s_ sake!”

With an overload of sneer and sarcasm, Ryan reaches out to grab Meg’s wrist and tug her out of Michael’s front door, closing it with a loud slam followed by another three knocks in rapid succession. Michael’s shout of _asshole_ dies on his lips, as Ryan doesn’t give him more than second before swinging the door open again, and the pair bound inside.

“Happy?”

“Ecstatic.” Michael glares, as Gavin laughs beside him on the couch. Geoff knocks back in the armchair with a beer and Ray sits in front of him, closing his DS with an audible snap at Ryan’s urgency.

“What is it?” he asks, just as Michael notices the giant leather bound book, cradled in Meg’s tiny arms. It’s the one Geoff and Gavin had brought back from Jerusalem- _real_ human skin pages (gross) and intricate foreign markings that may-or-may-not be written in blood (double gross). It’s a priceless artifact that Gavin stole from a tomb , but it gets tossed onto his kitchen counter with the six of them gathered around it as carelessly as a copy of _US Weekly._

“We’ve found it!” Meg announces excitedly, heaving open the book and flicking through the crumbling pages rapidly to the one marked over with yellow post-it notes of translation and annotation.

“Found what?” Geoff mumbles. Michael will give it to him- it’s only one o’clock in the afternoon. Early, for Geoff.

“For lack of a better, translatable term? A portal. Direct express, temporary window through from here.” He taps the counter top so harshly, that the mock-marble cracks under his fingers. “-I’ll fix that.”

Michael rolls his eyes. “Whatever. Get to the point.”

“Yeah Ryan,” Gavin pipes up, quietly behind Michael, who can feel the angel’s nervous breath heavy against the back of his neck as Gavin stand’s with their hands clasped together tightly. Nobody comments. “A portal from here to where?”

Michael can’t decipher if it’s madness or genius that makes Ryan’s eyes sparkle.

“Heaven.”

“ _What”_ It wakes Geoff up, that’s for sure, pushing his way between Meg and Ryan in order to scan the notes the pair have scrawled over the holy artefact, eyes widening as he reads over their scribblings. “Impossible.” His face screws up, almost in disgust. “You can’t make a portal from earth to Heaven. It’s… it’s beyond the bounds of fucking… possibility. It doesn’t _exist_!”

“Yeah,” Ryan smirks. “Maybe there’s a lot that Heaven likes to make you think is impossible.”

“Heaven…” Ray speaks for the first time, glancing over the book briefly. “It’s a pretty big place. Say you take this… portal- where are you even gonna end up?”

“The garden.” Meg explains, looking to Ryan silently for approval. He nods, barely- but Michael catches it, right as Meg dives back into the notes. “It’s the place closest to God- he’s clearly not on earth unless he took a vacation to practice his _hide-and-go-seek_ skills, so your best bet on finding him is there.”

“How does it work?” Geoff asks, tugging at the sticky notes and holding them close to his face. “This fucking… _portal_ \- whatever it is, how exactly are we supposed make it?”

“Some pretty powerful spell work. It’s gonna take a lot of power from all of us- even Michael. There was one bit that was…. untranslatable at first, but then, I had Meg take a look at it… and it just made sense- like the final piece to the puzzle-”

“-It was you.” Michael finishes. When he looks at Meg, he remembers the flowers, and how they keened to her wherever she went across the tiny slither of balcony hanging outside his apartment. “You’re connected to the garden.”

Meg frowns. “How’d you know that?”

“The flowers.”  Michael smiles. “They follow you.”

“ _Your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven._ ” Ray recounts, watching Meg and the way everyone is staring at her. “That’s you. Isn’t it?”

“That’s me. The fucking abomination that could never exist- how fucking _awesome is that_.” She laughs, and a grin stretches across both Ryan and Ray’s faces. Michael can feel Gavin, gripping his hand tighter as he becomes more nervous, staying silent but eyes screaming a thousand questions.

Angels are not supposed to feel fear, but Michael knows it immediately when he sees it on Gavin’s face.

“All this- this garden shit,” he asks, so Gavin doesn’t have to. “What does it all mean? Someone fucking explain something, please?”

“We open the portal to the garden, and Gavin steps through it.” Ryan explains. “Burnie is the keeper of the garden since Joshua stepped down, so Gav- you have history with him- he likes you. He can probably give you some of those answers you’ve been looking for.”

Gavin may be standing slightly behind him, but Michael sees him clear as day. Gavin draws in on himself, and his fading grace ripples in their hand’s embrace.

“Why me?” he asks quietly. “Why can’t Meg do it- if she’s… connected, or whatever? Or _you_ \- Ry, or Geoff, or-”

“Only angels can enter the garden, Gavin, you know that.” Geoff says quietly. “It’s you. All of this- it’s been for you, so you go in. Just you. Alone.”

 

* * *

 

 

Michael finds Gavin at the top of the building, sat on the edge of the roof with his legs swung precariously over the edge and his fingers gripped tightly on the walls. Michael runs over to him panicked at first, but Gavin is as relaxed as ever, turning briefly to smile at his charge.

“Oh, hey Michael.”

“Dude- get _down_ from there!”

Gavin frowns, tilts his head to the side in the way that Michael simultaneously loves and despises so much. “Why?” he asks, as innocent as all things good can be. If _good_ could be shaped and melded into a single person, Michael imagines they’d probably be a lot like Gavin, just without the frayed edges.

“What if you fall?”

Gavin smiles as Michael approaches the edge of the roof, stood beside him.

“What if I don’t?”

Michael doesn’t really have much of an answer for that. He folds his arms across his chest, his back to the city below. Gavin casts his gaze away from the atrocity of human life and turns to look at the human that he loves-

Does he love Michael?

Gavin isn’t sure- human emotions, although more appealing to him now with his… unique experience, are complicated to him. All he knows is that when he looks at Michael, something in his gut lights up and grows, stretching out further and further like it can reach out and touch him.

If that’s love- maybe he understands what all the fuss over the past few centuries has been about.

“Ryan’s doing the spell downstairs.” Michael sighs. “Getting everything ready- says that ingredients wise it’s nothing tricky. They can’t start without you though.”

Subtly- carefully, Michael leans against Gavin and rests his head against the angel’s shoulder.

“I’m scared Michael.” He swallows thickly. “Really, properly scared. I don’t know what’s going to happen when I step through that door.”

“Heaven, Gav.” Michael’s hair tickles his throat. “Your home. Just like you always talked about.”

Gavin leans back into Michael’s embrace, eyes fixed to the sky.

“Maybe Heaven isn’t home anymore.” He looks away, back to Michael. Michael is just as appealing, if not more appealing than the human view of the sky. Back in heaven, it was a white cloudy mess to look down upon and skip across. The sky was nothing special to them- to the angels.

It’s a pretty big deal down on earth though.

“I like it here, Michael. I really do- what if, what if I go into heaven and I can’t get back home?”

“Gavin.” Michael stiffens beside him, standing up straight to look Gavin straight in the eyes. “I won’t let that happen, alright?”

Gavin isn’t sure how possibly Michael could stop anything the angels want. If they wanted to trap him in Heaven, he’s pretty Damn sure that there isn’t a spell under the sun that could drag him back down-

But possibility and impossibility are irrelevant to Michael. Michael Jones, his charge- the boy who burns brighter the sun and the stars combined. Michael Jones wouldn’t care if it was impossible.

He would _try_.

“Alright Michael.” Gavin sighs. “I’ll do it. And I’ll see you later.”

“Don’t worry boi,” Michael grins, wind making his curls blow around his face. “I’ll be right here, waiting for you on the other side.”

 

* * *

 

 

_Fear is not something that angels are supposed to feel._

For the most part of the ritual, Gavin watches. Ryan controls the whole ordeal, being the most powerful of the group and Geoff’s facial expressions screams volumes of how _jealous_ he is. Ray’s eyes are black, but Ryan’s are completely white.

Geoff bleeds into the copper bowl _(Blood of a fallen; incantation of a demon; breath of a guardian; touch of an abomination)_ as Ryan and Ray continue to chant together, slowly growing louder as the wind picks up in the room. None of them, standing in a tight circle around Michael’s kitchen counter spare him much of a look.

Michael joins in when instructed to, and Gavin feels his wrists tingle as Michael’s chest lights up blue and his power feeds into the rapidly growing tornado of light the five have created.

They chant and chant and chant, but the light doesn’t do much apart from spin until Meg looks at Ryan and Ryan nods at her, and then, she reaches forwards and thrusts her slim fingers into the storm, and the light explodes. Michael clamps his eyes shut on instinct, but the rest, including Geoff, only watch as the light grows into a more rectangular shape, spinning through the air before plastering itself onto the door of Michael’s laundry closet, seeping through the imitation wood until only the faint glow around the edges remains.

Ryan’s cheeks are flushed with exhaustion, Geoff looks more than a little pale and Meg can barely stand upright from the amount of energy that’s been sucked out of her tiny body. Michael looks a little shaky, but stable- so it’s up to Ray being the only competent member of the group to nod towards the door and say Gavin’s name.

Like a rope around his neck, Gavin feels himself being tugged towards the door, his vessels legs moving on his own accord before he can change his mind and fly away.

“No! I changed my mind! I don’t want to go!” He cries. “You can’t make me- Michael, _please_!”

Michael can do nothing but watch him go, frozen to the spot either out of fear or shock- Gavin isn’t sure. For once, he can’t even feel the faint throb of _Michael_ in the back of his head, and that _terrifies him_ as he reaches for the door handle and is pulled in by the light.

 

* * *

 

 

Heaven’s garden is a sacred place for obvious reasons.

Aside from Earth, The Garden was always said to be one of God’s favourite creations, and that was obvious by the amount of care and detail pressed into every flower and every blade of grass. Mighty trees towered around the landscape, the ripest fruits and nuts adorning every branch. Never had Gavin seen grass so green as when he saw The Garden for the first time, back when he was being reared by-

 _“Burnie_.”

The angel in question is stood facing the biggest and most powerful tree, slap bang in the centre of the field. _The Tree of Knowledge_ , Gavin had heard the humans call it before, but that didn’t make much sense to him.

“Gavin.” Burnie doesn’t even turn around, hands wrapped tightly in each other behind his vessel’s back. “I’ve been waiting for you.”

Gavin frowns, stalking forwards slightly. With every step he takes in the garden he feels a drop of his grace spark and restore itself, and for the first time since he had shown them, battered and bruised to Michael- he allows his wings to stretch behind his back.

At this, Burnie turns.

His eyes widen only a fraction of a centimetre when he looks at Gavin’s wings, and suddenly, Gavin feels _shy_. He’s never felt shy before, but Burnie’s gaze is piercing and powerful.

“Want an apple?” Burnie asks him, glancing up at the array of bright fruits that hang from the tree’s branches. It isn’t geographically possible for a tree to bloom bright red apples, yellow bananas, dark purple berries and rustic chestnuts- but God was said to always enjoy a bit of experimentation when it came to creation.

“No thanks-”

“-It’ll make you feel better.” Burnie smirks. Gavin swallows.

“Nah. I’ve heard the story enough- don’t take fruit from The Garden and all that. I wouldn’t want to get done in like Adam and Eve.”

“Gavin,” Burnie laughs curtly, reaching up to pluck an apple from the tree. As he reaches, Gavin watches in awe as the branches creak down to meet him halfway. “Don’t you think you’ve been punished enough?”

“Where’s father?” Gavin folds his arms across his chest. “That’s what I came here for anyway. Where is God?”

Burnie hangs his head, drawing the red apple to his mouth. However, when he bites into it, juices running down his chin- the apple regenerates itself, skin growing back over the chunk. Burnie smiles, and then tosses the perfectly gleaming apple over to Gavin, who catches it without thinking. It’s almost a little relieving, being back in heaven and not having to spend so much time _thinking_ anymore.

“Your grace is replenishing just by being here.” Burnie notes. “Sure you don’t want to stick around?”

“I’ve got a pretty good gig back home.” Gavin mumbles. Burnie nods and a small smile draws across his face.

“So I’ve heard. You’ve wasted a lot of time though- all that search for God nonsense. Like you’d ever actually find him.” He laughs- harshly enough to make Gavin roll his shoulders back, allowing his blade to slip from the sleeve of his jacket.

He points it, silver and gleaming in his fist towards Burnie. The angel only raises an eyebrow.

“You really want to attempt my life, brother? The only person who can give you the truth?” he asks.

Gavin’s eyes darken. “Start talking.”

Burnie rolls his eyes. “I don’t know what you want me to say kid. God is gone-”

“-Wrong answer.” Gavin lurches forwards, content to plunge his slim blade through Burnie’s smirking face, but a wave of the angel’s hand sends him tumbling backwards into the grass. His blade disappears in his hand, dissolving into thin air before reappearing, pressed against his throat with Burnie on the other end.

And the other angel doesn’t even look angry.

“Gavin.” He sighs, twisting the blade in his hand so it nicks across the tip of Gavin’s throat gently. “Haven’t you figured it out by now?”

Gavin frowns, laying down in the dirt of the garden, his hands spread out around him, feeling the perfect blades of velvet green grass across his skin, healing the cuts on his vessel and his wings too. He decides then that he hates the garden. The grass is _too_ soft to be real, the sky above too white and the fruit too perfect. The apple from earlier lays beside him, and without thinking he reaches out and takes a bite.

The apple is sweet and perfect in a way that makes his tongue feel bitter. After he’s bitten, it doesn’t regenerate.

“I don’t understand.” He says quietly. Burnie offers him a hand, pulling the unsteady angel to his feet. He frowns. “Who are you, Burnie- really? You feel…” he reaches out, rubbing a hand clumsily over Burnie’s soft face. No angel, prolonged exposure to the garden or not, should be able to feel so perfect beneath his touch. It dawns on him once Burnie steps back from his embrace, that his vessels soft skin reminds him of Michael’s- _his_ Michael, and a pain stings in his chest.

“You’re too perfect.” He swallows thoughts of Michael down and ignores the dull throb of pain. He came here on a mission- and he wouldn’t want the group’s efforts to be wasted.

“I’m not who you think I am.” Burnie twirls his blade in his hands before handing it over, handle-end back to Gavin. “Burnie… it’s a nickname. Adopted from my vessel.”

“-I don’t understand.”

“-I mean, did you really think there would be an angel with a vessel named _Burnie_.” He laughs, soft and breathy under Gavin’s confused gaze. “No. I’m a little different than most angels, like you Gavin.”

“Who are you?” Gavin demands. It’s fruitless, but he turns the blade back onto Burnie despite. “Who are you?” he repeats.

Burnie groans, but stretches his arms behind him and let’s his wings unfurl. The blade drops from Gavin’s hand and rolls onto the perfect grass. The flowers and the plants and the trees around keen towards the glowing ball of light that encompasses Burnie, and when it fades- six majestic wings fan out from behind his back.

“My name is Michael. Good to meet you, Gavin.”

“-But… but- you _died_ \- you _killed yourself_ , after Lucifer!”

“I did.” Michael-Burnie-whoever nods. “But then He brought me back. Father- he gave me a second chance.”

Gavin’s lip quivers. “I _don’t_ understand.”

“I don’t expect you to,” Michael laughs. “I took this vessel and the identity as Burnie, keeper of the garden as a disguise- I sentenced myself to pay penance for my sins by caring for the garden under His watchful eye but… then He turned quiet.”

“Where is He?” Gavin sniffs. “All I’ve been doing is praying and searching but He _won’t_ answer me.”

“He’s gone, Gavin.” Burnie raises his head, glancing up to the perfect sky without so much as squinting under it’s powerful beam. “He changed, a long time ago. After Lucifer and I came to blows… he became bitter and twisted that out of all the angels he had to make examples out of us- he beloved sons. He’s been plotting since and now- he’s planned something drastic.”

Gavin straightens at that. “What? What’s He planning?”

Burnie sighs, lowering his face to stare Gavin directly in the eyes. “I’m sorry, Gavin- but God… _father­_ \- if you could even call him that,” he scoffs. “He’s closing Heaven’s gates. He doesn’t want us to cross over to Earth anymore, or be able to interfere with human life- not for at least another millennium.”

Gavin’s grace burns painfully in his chest at the thought of never seeing Michael again. Never seeing Geoff, or Ryan or Ray or even Meg- that hurts. But never seeing _Michael_ , _his_ Michael- the thought alone makes him want to lay down and perish in the deadly embrace of the perfect garden of paradise.

“When?” he asks queerly. Burnie shakes his head, and laughs.

“When? What is time- up here, Gavin? Is it even real, where we stand?”

“ _When._ ” Gavin repeats, harsher. Burnie- no, _Michael_ , the so-called glorious archangel continues to laugh bitterly at him, and Gavin begins to wonder what all the hype was about over the arch’s in the first place.

“It’s _now_ , Gavin.” He laughs. “The angels are being dragged up here, kicking and screaming one by one as we speak- haven’t you noticed? Your little friend…” he looks off in the distance, frowning in his attempt to recall. “Caleb? Didn’t he warn you something was wrong.”

Gavin thinks about Caleb, and how when he appeared to him and Geoff, he said the earth felt wrong beneath his feet. Gavin doesn’t even want to think about the same happening to him- to have somewhere he considers his home rejected by his own body.

“What will happen to me?” Gavin panics, his wings flexing on their own accord, itching for flight. “If I fly home now- wont I just get dragged straight back?”

Michael shakes his head. “Gavin… from the beginning when I reread you- we always knew, father and I… that you were different. You would never be able to be tied down or controlled, you’re much to skittish and _irritating_ for that.”

“I _don’t_ understand.” Gavin whines. Burnie glares at him.

“Stop saying that- you’re an angel, are you not?” he growls. “You have to go, Gavin. Otherwise, you’ll never be able to leave. But just know that when you do go- past midnight tonight on Earth, you’ll never be able to return.”

Gavin’s eyes widen and his wings flutter nervously behind his back. “You’re saying I have to choose?”

Michael smiles. “I’m saying you’ve already chosen.”

“And how would you know that?”

Burnie smirks, reaching upwards for another crisps apple. “You called it your home,” he tosses the apple to Gavin, shaking his head fondly. “You called it your home- so that’s where you belong.”

“I can’t just turn my back on Heaven-”

“Don’t you understand by now, Gavin?” Burnie asks. “You already have.”

Gavin thinks of Michael then- _his_ Michael. Michael Vincent Jones, the boy who never thought he was anything special. The boy surrounded by supernatural influences for his whole life yet whom remained oblivious. Michael Jones- the boy who loves him, angel or otherwise.

“Fly back to Michael, your Michael- Michael Jones.” Burnie tells him. “He is special Gavin, and not just because I’m a part of him. It’s because he’s a part of you, and don’t think for one second he wouldn’t lose his life for you without question.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> One more chapter and an Epilogue left. Hope you enjoyed!


	17. The Guardian and his Angel

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Meg is still unconscious, she had passed out not long after the portal opened and Ryan carried her to the couch, laying her out like a princess in a fairy-tale. Not even Ray could hold back the glare until Ryan left her, strolling back over to kiss him on forehead gently.
> 
> The light around the door is studied meticulously by Geoff over the hour, as Ryan leafs frantically through the book for something- anything that can buy them a little more time. Because the longer the portal stays open, the duller the light gets. And although the spell wasn’t clear, they can all make an educated enough guess at what will happen when the light fades away.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> There's an epilogue, so this isn't the last chapter.

** Chapter Seventeen: The Guardian and his Angel **

 

 

 

 

Meg is still unconscious, she had passed out not long after the portal opened and Ryan carried her to the couch, laying her out like a princess in a fairy-tale. Not even Ray could hold back the glare until Ryan left her, strolling back over to kiss him on forehead gently.

The light around the door is studied meticulously by Geoff over the hour, as Ryan leafs frantically through the book for something- _anything_ that can buy them a little more time. Because the longer the portal stays open, the duller the light gets. And although the spell wasn’t clear, they can all make an educated enough guess at what will happen when the light fades away.

Michael knows he can’t let that happen, but the hours tick around slowly as Meg snores and Ray fidgets and Ryan reads and Geoff drinks. The light is barely a light now, and Michael looks over just in time to watch Ryan’s shoulders drop as he closes the book with a dusty smack.

“What?” Michael snaps. Ray and Geoff’s eyes shoot over but neither of them dare say anything. Ryan bites his lip.

“It’s no good.” He shrugs. “The amount of time it would take to even translate enough of this book to figure out if we could use a spell to keep the portal open…” he trails off, eyes gazing over at the dull and flickering light. “It’s too late, Michael. I’m sorry.”

Ryan has the decency to hang is fucking head at the very least. He probably expects Michael to be irritated or angry. Ray watches him cautiously from afar and even Geoff’s body takes on slightly defensive stance.

Because he’s _Michael._ He’s the _Rage Quit Kid._

“You’re giving up?” he whispers, closing his eyes tightly. “You’re just… giving up?”

“Michael, there’s nothing-”

“Shut up.” Michael mumbles, fists clenching tightly. “Just shut up.” His voice is hoarse, but for once the tears choking his throat are not out of anger. He doesn’t feel angry- this isn’t anything close to _anger_. His skin burns with the streaks of cool ice, and Gavin’s grace ripples in the surface of his skin.

“Please.” He allows his eyes to open. Ray and Ryan and Geoff watch him silently as a few stray tears escape and slip down his face. “You have to try-”

“Michael.” Ray pushes past Ryan to step forwards, reaching out to his best friend. “Ryan’s done everything he can, he’s said-”

“I don’t _care_ what he’s _said_.” Michael cries, body swaying with exhaustion and hysteria. He lurches forwards- as if he could ever do something against _Ryan fucking Haywood_ and Ray holds his arms out to stop him, effectively trapping Michael in a tight embrace. “I need him Ray!” Michael sobs. “I need him to come _home_.”

“I’m so _so_ sorry Michael.” Ray only hugs him tighter. “We all want that too, but it isn’t possible.”

“Nothing’s impossible!” Michael roars, a sudden surge of strength shoving Ray away from him harshly enough that the demon stumbles backwards a few feet. Michael ignores the way Ryan’s fists clench on the countertop. “You fucking _assholes!”_ he cries, turning to look back at the door. “He did _everything_ he fucking could for all of you- and all you ever do is fucking throw it back in his face.”

“Michael,” Geoff sighs “It’s not our fault. There’s _nothing_ we can do.”

Michael looks from Geoff to the door, back to Geoff and then again to the door. As he reaches out to touch it, for a second, it almost looks as if the light burns brighter for him.

“Michael- step away from the door.” Ryan steps forwards and around the counter. “Seriously- the book was clear. Only angels can pass though.”

“I don’t care.” Michael sniffs, his arm practically vibrating as he forces it towards the door handle. Every single fibre of his body, every microscopic cell screams for him to step away, but he fights it despite. Gavin is on the other side- and he promised the angel that he would be there. “He’s scared. I can feel it.” His eyes narrow as his fist closes around the door handle, and slowly, the light grows again. “I promised him.” He grits his teeth, using the full force of his weight to tug the door open, blue vibrating inside his veins and off his body. Background noise becomes silent, the calls of Ryan and Ray and Geoff quickly becoming obsolete and unrecognisable. It isn’t pain anymore- there is no burning.

There’s only the light, and then, within it a pair of beautiful white and brown feathered wings.

 

 

* * *

 

 

He wouldn’t have described what he experienced as sleep.

If asked, Michael would describe it as a state of being. A Ying and Yang of ice and fire, dragging up his skin and breaking open his chest, floating through his skin and his organs and his bones. Tingling over every surface from the pads of his feet to the split ends of his curly hair.

Just as he was blinded, like a vision, Gavin glided towards him throughout the light.

 

 

* * *

 

 

“Michael?”

Peeling open his eyes aches like a five mile run, but he can vaguely feel Gavin’s hand stroking up and down his face, so he perseveres until his vision clears and Gavin’s smiling face glows above him.

Gavin looks almost the way he did when they first met, a beautiful sharp grey suit, glowing white dress shirt. His smile is wide and cocky and confident, barely a shadow of the timid and anxious angel he’d been sleeping beside for the past few weeks.

“What the fuck?” Michael tries to sit up, but his body betrays him until Gavin’s hand moves to his chest, holding him in place firmly. “Woah there,” Gavin smiles. “You’re probably going to want to rest up for a bit.”

“What happened?” _Fuck_ it even aches to speak. His voice sounds like an eighty-year-old man’s who smokes a deck and a half of cigarettes per day. “There was this-”

“-Light, yeah. It was heaven, that.” Gavin explains. “And congrats, by the way! You’re now the only human to ever have seen it alive without you know… having your eyes burned out of your skull.” Gavin walks around the best to sit beside him, toeing off his leather shoes to cross his legs above the blanket.

“What?”

“-Seriously, though…you- you came and got me out of there when I didn’t know if I’d make it, just like you promised. So… thank you, Michael.”

Weakly, Michael uses every ounce of muscle he can muster to reach over and take Gavin’s hand between his. He doesn’t have the energy to squeeze, but the feeling of their skin, grace swirling between their fingertips pressed together is enough. Gavin seems to understand the gesture, and smiles, before linking his fingers between Michael’s.

“What… about God?”

“God.” Gavin shrugs. “He wasn’t there. He’s… not worth it, not anymore.”

“But…” Michael groans, trying to tilt his head to look at Gavin. “All your work…”

“For nothing- I know. I wasted everyone’s time just to find out from Burnie- or sorry, the Archangel Michael as he’s apparently known, that God wants nothing to do with Earth for a while and wants to snap the gates between out worlds shut.”

Michael’s eyes widen. “But… you’re-”

“Here? I know.” Gavin laughs. “I made a decision… to stay, and never be a proper angel again- if that’s alright with you of course.”

“Gav,” Michael’s lips curl achingly slowly into a smile. “You shouldn’t’ve…”

“Stayed?”

Michael nods. Gavin shrugs. “I think… that I liked it better here anyway.” He takes his hand away from Michael’s, long enough to strip of his suit jacket and lay down beside his charge, their faces rested close enough to touch, if Michael had the strength to lean forwards.

“The thought of never seeing you again, Michael-” Gavin squeezes his eyes closed. “…it was too much to bear.”

“I…” For once, Michael has all the right words to say. He has the fucking mental capacity to wax fucking poetry about how much he _knows_ for certain that he loves Gavin, more than he’s ever loved another person in his life. But his lips won’t co-operate with his thoughts and all he manages is another butchered slur of Gavin’s name, making the angel laugh in a whisper.

“Here.” Gavin smiles. “I’ve got a little boost of grace from being in the garden- but seeing as I won’t be needing it-” he doesn’t say anything else, just leans forwards to press his lips ever so gently against Michael’s, softly breathing a cool breeze down Michael’s throat and into his gut until his body begins to tingle, and slowly, he regains the feeling in his legs that he didn’t realise he was missing.

“Gavin-” he whispers. Gavin hasn’t leant back very far, and their faces are still pressed together. “I… you have to know, if you’re going to stay here, I have to tell you-”

“Tell me what?” Gavin asks, blank. Passive. Unaware, even still.

It makes Michael grin. “That I love you, idiot.”

Gavin’s brow furrows, curiously. “Oh. Really?”

“I know when you said it I didn’t, and I should’ve because I did- I do,” Michael sighs. “but I’m just… sorry- I’m all mixed up. I love you, Gavin. Angel or fucking otherwise- that shit doesn’t matter to me. I love you, and I just had to tell you that.”

“Michael.” Gavin simpers, and slowly, a soft smile grows across his face. “You should’ve said before.”

“You had more important things at stake than me, Gav,” Michael reaches forwards to cup Gavin’s face in his hand gently. “Searching for God and your struggle with your powers and… everything going on- you didn’t need me fucking mumbling over the phone about how you make my chest fucking tingle or whatever.”

They both fall silent after that, and Michael closes his eyes to let the moment take him. Even with Gavin’s power boost, there’s still the itching need in the back of his mind to sleep for a hundred years. Eventually, after a pause Gavin speaks again.

“You really mean it?” he asks. Michael peels his eyes open.

“Of course.” He replies. “I’ve felt it for a while, I just didn’t know what _it_ was. But now… now I know- and if you’re content to stay down here on earth, and hang out for the rest of my boring human forever… well- I’d be fucking honoured.”

“I love you, Michael Jones.” Gavin grins, leaning forwards even closer to press his forehead against Michael’s. “And I’ll stay as long as you’ll have me.”

Neither had much to say after that, as Michael’s lips found Gavin’s in the dark of the room.


	18. Epilogue

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The End

** Chapter Eighteen: Epilogue **

 

 

 

“AH- _HA_!” Lindsay busted in the door the day after Gavin’s triumphant return, hands on her hips and hair vibrant around her face. “I mean…” she looked around the room, brow furrowing in confusion. “What?”

Michael looked around at his friends, frozen around the room. Ray’s eyes were completely black- he had been watching Ryan perform a warding spell with some old bits of priest-bones that were currently floating in the air, Ryan’s lips curled around the half formed mutter of incantation. Geoff was drinking on the armchair with his feet propped up on the sofa where Meg laid, half asleep with the vine of a potted plant creeping up her arm.

And Michael- he was standing by the balcony with his arms looped around Gavin’s waist as the angel stretched his wings across from his back, in full view of everyone in the room.

This then included Lindsay who was at that point, stood completely still in the doorway. Michael could practically stare through her skull and watch the cogs spinning at light speed as her brain tried to comprehend what exactly it was seeing. The bones from Ryan’s spell clattered onto the countertop loudly and she blinked.

“I…” Lindsay’s eyes then narrowed and she let out a long breath that Michael hadn’t realised she’d been holding. “I…” she blinked, rapidly, staring around the room. “explain? Michael?”

Michael bit his lip and looked at Gavin, who had taken a step away from him with a startled expression. He sighed.

“ _Shit.”_

 

 

* * *

 

 

Ryan and Ray cleared out pretty quickly, dragging a reluctant Geoff and an apologetic sleepy Meg with them back up to their apartment. That left Michael, Lindsay and an extremely sheepish looking Gavin who had drawn his wings back into themselves and completely out of sight before awkwardly edging away from Michael and towards the door as he looked between the two friends.

“Lindsay, this is… Gavin. Gavin, Lindsay.” Michael awkwardly scratched his arm, nodding between the two. “Hey… Gav- why don’t you head up to Ryan and Ray’s place with the others… I think me and Lindsay probably have some… things, to talk about.”

“Right.” Gavin swallowed. “See you… in a bit then.”

“See you.” Michael waved awkwardly. As the door clicked closed behind his angel, Lindsay pivoted around to face him, eyes blown wide.

“Dude.” She said. “What the _fuck_?”

He laughed, at first because he wasn’t really sure how else to react. Lindsay sat down in the armchair and Michael sat in the couch to face her with his head in his hands, giggling uncontrollably so he didn’t have to look her in the eyes.

“Seriously… am I on drugs?” Lindsay asked, staring at Michael. “Like… this isn’t happening, is it? This is just an LSD thing, right?”

“Fucking hell.” Michael laughed again. “I really fucking wish it was.”

“God.” Lindsay sighed heavily, leaning backwards slightly in the armchair with her hands clasped together tightly. Michael ran his hands over his face, and looked up to face her.

“You’re not far off- actually.”

“ _What_ the fuck is going on, Michael? Why can’t you be the normal friend with a fucking secret boyfriend-”

“Sorry.” Michael shrugged. “I guess this is the part where I explain my odd behaviour from the past couple of months.”

“Uh, you think?” she quipped. Michael rolled his eyes.

“Trust me.” He smiled. “When you hear this fucking story- you’ll get why I kept it quiet.”

 

* * *

 

 

 

Michael frowned. “You’re taking this oddly well, Lindsay.” They’d moved to the kitchen after Michael had explained the story, Lindsay sipping a much needed coffee leant against the fridge and Michael, perched up on the still cracked countertop chewing on a pop tart. “Like… super well. I would’ve thought you’d have called the fucking mental asylum on me by now.”

“Well I figured something had to be up!” Lindsay shrugged. “You were acting so shifty and fucking… _weird_ and this does sort of make a lot of sense in a totally nonsensical fucked up way”

“Right…” Michael hopped down from the counter, tossing what was left of his _Poptart_ back on the plate. “Well, you’re welcome to hang out here until the idiot’s creep out of their hidey hole and come back down but I’m probably going to just… sleep for the next five days because I’ve had… a really fucking odd couple of weeks.”

Surprising him yet again, Lindsay only smiled, before leaving her coffee on the counter and pulling Michael into a tight hug. He didn’t know he needed it until her arms wrapped around him, but Lindsay had always been so soft and warm and she smelt like strawberries.

He held on tighter than they were both expecting, but Lindsay didn’t pull away, just stroked his hair softly and let him tuck his head into the crook of her shoulder.

“Looking forwards to getting back to normal?” she asked quietly. Michael scoffed, and finally leant backwards.

“Absolutely not.” A smirk grew over his face as he ran his hands through his hair, pushing the long curls out of his face so they bounced around carelessly. “My _boyfriend_ is an angel Linds-” he grinned. “I don’t think anything’s ever going to be ‘normal’ again.”

 

* * *

 

_The End_

 

 

Cool art for this fic :  _[enderslug](http://enderslug.tumblr.com/post/139859211882/im-in-love-with-papersk1n-s-fic-searching-for)_

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is the end of the story! Of course, there's always an open door for a sequel or a follow up but who knows when/if that will ever happen haha. Thank you to everyone who's stuck with this fic since I posted it in July of 2015! What an eight months it has been. 
> 
> Please leave kudos if you liked it/ a comment. Did you expect/foresee the ending from the beginning? Did you like the way it ended? Did you like the way the story progressed? I have all these questions and a thousand more so please let me know what you thought and feel free to check out my other fics!

**Author's Note:**

> HMU on tumblr, PAPERSK1N.tumblr.com ! 
> 
> <3


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